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English Pages 171 Year 1900
ANDREW JACKSON
by WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN
Classic Literature Collection World Public Library.org
Title: ANDREW JACKSON Author: WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN Language: English Subject: Fiction, Literature 'LJLWDOPublisher: World Public Library Association
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Kifcrrsi&e Biographical
NUMBER
i.
ANDREW JACKSON BY
WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN
ANDREW JACKSON BY
WILLIAM GAKROTT BROWN
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Boston
:
4 Park Street
;
New York
Chicago: 378-388 (Cfce Rtoer.gtDe
:
11 East Seventeenth Street
Wabash Avenue
COPYRIGHT,
1900,
BY WILLIAM GARROTT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BROWN
CONTENTS PAGE
CHAP. I.
THE WAXHAWS AND THE WILDERNESS
H.
CONGBESS: THE BENCH: THE MILITIA
III.
IV.
V. VI.
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA
NEW
.
.
....
1
24
46 69
ORLEANS
THE SEMINOLES AND THE
POLITICIANS
THE WHITE HOUSE
227627
.
.
87 118
ANDREW JACKSON
THE WAXHAWS AND THE WILDERNESS IN
Lafayette
White House
Square,
which
Washington, there
at
the
fronts is
an
equestrian statue of a very thin, long-headed old man whose most striking physical charac teristics are the firm chin and lips and the bristling, upright
great
work
of
impression of
The
hair.
piece
not a
is
gives one a strong determination, if not of pug art,
but
it
Scidptors have not the means to represent the human eye, else this impres sion might have been made stronger ; for the nacity.
old gentleman whose warlike
aspect
is
here
He reproduced had a glance like a hawk s. had, moreover, a habit of gazing fixedly at any one who attracted
his attention.
When
JACKSON he was angry, as he was quite frequently, few men could meet his look with composure. When he was in good humor, however, as he usually was when he dealt with his friends, or with women or children, his eyes could be very kindly, and his grim lips could part in
a smile that was extremely attractive.
Not
Were his
far
away
is
the
the horseman alive,
head he could see
There
trees.
that
Treasury building.
when
is
this
by merely turning
outline through the a tradition in Washington
old
its
man
the
lived in
White a new
House, and Congress voted to erect Treasury building, the old one being burned,
some question of the exact spot The question was on which it should stand. put to him when he happened to be walk there was
ing near the
He
Avenue.
and said there is
in
it
western end of Pennsylvania struck his cane on the ground "
shortly,
stands.
true, it
is
it
here,
Whether
characteristic
keeping with
forGvhen
Put
the
sir,"
and
or not the story of the man and
history
of
Andrew Jackson was
his
times
;
President
most things were done at Washington just
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS as
he
them
ordered
be
to
declared that this was
friends
3
His
done.
so because in
most things his will stood for the will of the that they his enemies, American people ;
were done for no good reason whatever, but only because a despot to do them.
To
this
opinion.
day there
The
commanded
is
the
historians
him
and
same
still
his
slaves
division of
same
fight the
doings which hi former times was fought out by famous ora tors in Congress, by the whole people at the It is doubtful, indeed, if there ever polls.
battle
over
will be, until the
his
end of the Republic
itself,
an end of the dispute over the place which that slender
figure
with the
bristling
hair
have in American history. Had Andrew Jackson any good claim to statues
ought
to
and monuments, Republic,
to
the
first
popularity
such
to
place in the as no other
man had
enjoyed since Washington, to power such as Washington himself had never exer
Did he prove himself worthy of the To answer either place and power he held ? yes or no with assurance one must patiently cised?
ANDREW JACKSON
4
examine more books than Andrew Jackson ever glanced through in his whole life. This little book would hardly contain the full titles
of
them
all.
Yet
it
may
perhaps
large enough to let the reader see what ner of man he was concerning whom so
be
man many
have raged. Perhaps it serve to explain how a Scotch-Irish boy,
bitter controversies
may
born to the deepest obscurity and the wretchedest poverty, and blessed, apparently, with
no remarkable to
have
and
gifts
statues
counties
of
mind
carved in
and
cities
his
or body,
came
honor, towns
named
for
him,
long books written about him, a great party organized to do his bidding, the whole coun try time were for
and again divided into those who him and those who were against
him.
It is quite
important, as
most painstaking of
Mr. Parton, the
biographers, often observes, that this particular poor boy was of Scotch-Irish stock.
all his
That stock
is
again and
again conspicuous in American history, and Andrew Jackson was in many respects the
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS
5
most thoroughly representative Scotch-Irish man of all the notable Americans who can trace their descent
Indeed,
it
may be
to
the North of Ireland.
said that he narrowly es
caped being born in the North of Ireland, for his parents were living at Carrickfer-
They gus until two years before his birth. landed in America in 1765, and made their home in a Scotch-Irish settlement, the Waxhaws, on the boundary line between the two Andrew Jackson, the father, Carolinas.
and Elizabeth Hutchinson, the mother, were married and had two sons before they left They were poor, and doubt Carrickfergus. less
came
than to
to
no other reason
America for
better
their
fortunes.
early spring of few husband died.
still
very poor when, in the
the
year
days
1767,
later,
the
March
They were
A
15,
a
son
was
born
to
widowed Elizabeth, and she named him Andrew. He himself in after years said that his birthplace was to the south of the state line, and called South Carolina his but Mr. Parton s industrious native State researches make it seem more probable that
the
;
ANDREW JACKSON
6
log-house in which he was born north of the line, in Union County,
small
the
was
North Carolina.
The question
is
of
less
which there
importance than
no question, that he was born to the humblest circumstances in a new settlement of a new country, ana the
fact, of
that his childhood and of
among people hard
were
education,
boyhood were passed culture, whose lives
The boy got
and bare. and
never
was
a
little
To
scholar.
day of his death, he wrote the English
the
language with of
little
is
making many errors grammar and spelling, and spoke it with
many
difficulty,
of
peculiarities
other
languages
great
body of
he
pronunciation. knew nothing ; of literature,
science,
and
Of the
the
In fact, he he knew next to nothing. probably got less from books than any other arts
famous man in American Little years.
is
It
authentically is
mischievous,
got
into
clear,
in
known
of
however, that
high-spirited
trouble.
thoroughly
history.
At
keeping
least
boy,
his early
he was
and
often
one anecdote
with
his
a
career
is
in
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS Some
manhood.
playmates, so the loaded a gun to the muzzle
story goes, once
of
his
As they expected, him to fire. kicked him over, but they missed the fun
and gave it
7
it
He sprang to his feet they looked for. white with rage, and exclaimed, with an If one of you laughs, I 11 kill him path, "
"
!
The oath itself and no one laughed. not an unimportant part of the story, for
may
as well
be
said
at
once
that
is it
Andrew
Jackson, until near the end of his life, had He not only many such vices as swearing. he frequently quarrelled and swore, but
he was at one time given to bet he drank, and particularly on horses
fought ting,
;
;
he used
All of constantly. common in the society to
tobacco
habits were
these
which
he was born, and he did not escape them. But some things he did escape. He hated debt
most
all
his
life,
anything
and was willing
rather
than
incur
to
do
it.
al
He
had the greatest reverence for women, and bore himself towards them with
a courtesy
and tenderness, a knightly purity of thought and word and deed, which the finest gentle-
ANDREW JACKSON
8
man
most ancient society in the world could not have surpassed. of the
When
this
pleasing
turn
thoughts
fact
is
her
does
one
s
his widowed naturally to the most natural source of
mother, as to such an excellence in the son. of
stated,
indeed
indicate
All we that
know
her
in
on him was both strong and good but we know very little. She was a simple, fluence
:
uncultivated person, like most of her neigh bors, but her conduct during the harrowing scenes
think
was
in
than
it
war makes us
some respects extraordi The struggle was nowhere rougher
she
nary.
and
the revolutionary
of
fiercer
notorious
Waxhaws
was
in the Carolinas.
The
Colonel
Tarleton operated in the neighborhood, and many dreadful
and cruelty belong to that The Jackson family country and that time. had their full share of the fighting and the stories of suffering
suffering.
The two
older
boys,
Hugh and "
Robert, enlisted.
when he was musket.
were
barely
He and
released
Young in
"
his
Andy
himself,
teens, carried
a
Robert were captured, and
through
the
efforts
of
their
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS mother,
who brought about an exchange
prisoners.
9
of
Soon afterwards, she went on a
long and heroic journey to Charleston to nurse the sick Americans confined on the British prison ships there ill of the ship fever and
Robert both died in the
;
and there she died.
fell
Hugh and
service.
Andrew was
thus left an orphan, weakened in body by the smallpox, which he took while he was in prison. Moreover, he bore on his
head the mark of a blow from the sword of a British officer whose boots
No man
he had refused
who had a simpler human way of loving those who be friended him and of hating those who hurt him than Andrew Jackson and surely few men ever had better excuse than he for hat to
polish.
ever
lived
;
His feeling against ing the British uniform. the British was one of the things that colored his opinions on public questions; the su
preme hour
was the hour when, at New Orleans, he had his revenge full measure, heaped up, and running over for all that he had suffered in the Waxhaws.
of
his
life
Scholarly historians, passing rapidly
ANDREW JACKSON
10
over the events
of
his childhood, give
many
pages of learned criticism to the course he took on great public questions in later years,
and
deplore
gravely
been
terrible
passions
him when, no doubt, he should
that swayed
have
the
deliberate
as
and calm as they But stormy life.
are while they review his for those who would rather understand
judge him
than
surely cannot seem a small thing that he started out in life with such a heritage of bitter memories, such a schooling in
it
hatred, as
few children were ever cursed
Passion
with.
but
and
revenge
are
wrong, of
the
sandy-haired, pockmarked lad of the Waxhaws had better excuse than course,
most boys for It
is
the
failing
to
doubtful, indeed,
trouble
thing that
to
stuck
teach in his
if it
learn that
lesson.
any one ever took him.
One
mind probably hurt
worse than the sabre cut on his head. did not even
little
know where
his
mother
s
He grave
was.
not appear that during the next seven years, while he was growing to man It
does
hood, he
gave himself with
much
industry
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS either to study or to work.
For
six
11
months
he was employed in the shop of a saddler, but he seems to have learned more about saddles
than about
making them, for he became somewhat famous as a horseman filling
even
in a country
was
flesh
who were life
He
universal.
with some
their
where the love of horse
wealthy people
and
lived
from
with them a
which was beyond his means.
peace he
made a
debt, got
out of
sporting After the
Charleston, got into
visit to it
acquainted Charleston
the British evacuated
exiled until
city,
got
by winning a wager, and
grew somewhat graver in consequence of his There is even some reason to experience. believe that he went to work as a schoolmaster and doubtless some backwoods
u* *
;
rant
as
solved
that period
of
schools
Andrew Jackson.
to
1784-5
had masters as igno
study
law,
and
Finally^ne re in the whiter of
started out to find an office in
which
he might prepare himself for his profession. He found a place in the office of Mr. Spruce Carolina, an Salisbury, North old-fashioned Southern town, where he made
McCay,
of
\
ANDREW JACKSON
12-
Ms home
1788, when he was admitted
until
to the bar.
All that accords at the
what
with
at
such
in
swiftness and nerve
and of
he was
jokes;
never
the
were
frolic
sports
as
required
he was fond of practi not over fond of study,
any great knowledge
At
twenty, when he is described
finished,
his
as
studies
a
fellow, with a thin, fair
young
;
;
acquired
law.
slender
was ready for a
any hour of the day or night
excelled
cal
of his life at Salisbury is known of his life
He
Waxhaws.
or a fight
he
known
is
tall,
face
by no means handsome, but distinguished by considerable grace and an exquisite rider and dignity of manner of an extraordinarily pas a capital shot and deep blue
eyes,
;
;
sionate
when
temper,
his
yet
anger was
singularly
swift,
even
white heat, to seize to protect himself or
at
upon the right means discomfit an adversary
;
already
somewhat
a leader, not by any eminence of talent or knowledge, but because he had a gift of of
intensely minded year of his admission
leadership and was always to
have his way.
The
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS
13
to the bar, after a brief stay at Martinsville,
a small North Carolina town, he got himself appointed solicitor, or public prosecutor, of the western
of Tennessee,
district
set out for the
an
office
soon
West.
The appointment such
and
of
so
young a man
seems remarkable
until
to
one
knows what Tennessee was like at that time, and what duties a solicitor was expected to discharge.
misleading.
belonged to North Carolina, though inhabitants had but a little while before
went its
The term Tennessee is, in fact, The region to which Jackson
still
made an attempt to set up a separate State But of those under the name of Franklin. who made the attempt the great majority had lived western a
in
that
part
lands which
mountainous
is
of
North Carolina
s
now East Tennessee
region
of
which Jones-
or sixty of squatter town fifty Nashville, log-houses, was the metropolis. boro,
a
whither Jackson was bound, was nearly two hundred miles west of Jonesboro, and the Nashville ten years
settlement old.
It
was
as
yet
less
than
was founded in 1779 by
ANDREW JACKSON
14
Captain James Robertson with a little com The next year Colonel John pany of nine. cluding
a
with
Donelson,
women
much
and
larger
children,
came
from His
Virginia to join his friend Robertson. journey was one of the most striking dents in the peopling of the West, for
made
in
party,
inci it
was
down the Holston into the Tennessee, down the Ten nessee into the Ohio, up the Ohio into the Cumberland, and up the Cumberland to in
flatboats
Nashville.
It
which passed
took
four
months
cover
to
two thousand miles or more, and there were bloody fights with Indians, sickness, the
and death by the way. When, eight years later, after an overland journey through a wilderness
still
almost unbroken and
fested with Indians, Jackson
came
still
to
in
Nash
he found Mrs. Donelson a widow, for her husband had been murdered and he ville,
;
soon became an inmate of her home. It
try
was well for a widow in that wild coun
if
she
even
could
though she for a boarders
procure men "boarders," take might not need to "
"
living
;
for
every
house-
.
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS men
hold needed
to protect
it
15
from the In
Immigration was increasing con was still stantly, but the white population Within seven far too small to be safe. dians.
miles
of
the years
Nashville, during
1780-
1794, the Indians killed, on an average, one white person every ten days. Life in such a country was even rougher
and
barer
than
houses were
chiefly cabins
and the things which
logs, nities
make
were
almost
chandise to
the
in
the
time
ing,
and
it
shelter
frontier
all
chiefly
each
of
the
ship were treated did their part well, little
leisure
For
its
food, cloth
relied
mainly As own members.
family
population was brave women who took
regions,
The
male.
their share
miles,
reached them.
on the handiwork of in
attractive
usually and grew very dear by
from Philadelphia, the
houses
commu
Such mer wanting. offered to the settlers had
fetched hundreds of
be
in older
wholly
was
as
of
inside
The Waxhaws. made of unhewn
the
common work and hard with much respect, and
no doubt, but they had for those arts which brighten
ANDREW JACKSON
16
the
lives
and
the
refine
hus
characters of
bands and children.
Manners ers of the tleness,
suited conditions.
West had more
These build
strength than gen
more shrewdness than wisdom, more
courage than culture.
They were the rough
front which
American civilization presented to the wilderness and the brave, savage, hard-handed, themselves somewhat affected with the barbarism they came to displace, yet in all essentials of character true repre sentatives of their masterful race. They were
mainly of English or Scotch-Irish stock and no other breeds of white men have ever shown such capacity as these two for dealing ;
with inferior races and new countries. virtues were
courage,
Their
energy, alertness,
in
ventiveness, generosity, honesty, truth-speak ing ; their commonest faults were violence,
combativeness, lax ways perance, narrowness
of
in
business, intem
mind.
They hated
and Indians, and were ready to fight any one who behaved like an enemy or a critic they held in honor women, their Shut off from country, and brave men.
foreigners
;
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS the greater world
to
few pleasures
ing
17
and hav most Americans
the eastward,
such as
may now with
enjoy, they filled their leisure hours such sports as hunting, horse-racing,
drinking bouts, law,
indeed,
that
race
other
all
and
and
fights,
they held
in
The
lawsuits.
great
reverence
;
mark they had in common with societies made up of Englishmen But English descent. fonder of fighting than of
Americans
they were
of
even
the law, and the particular laws which were at once hardest to enforce and most in need
enforcement were those very simple laws which set forth the principle that private
of
wrongs must be righted
in the courts,
which
stand for the peace of the State, and not by wild justice of revenge. the "
"
The
difficult
and dangerous work
of
keep
and of enforcing business obliga tions fell largely to the solicitor and one need not wonder that there was no great ing order
"
"
;
scramble for the
man,
with
office,
so that a very
no experience
at
the
young bar and
knowledge of law, got the appointment. His duties were simple enough, but he had
little
ANDREW JACKSON
18
no reason to complain of being ness.
The
fights,
pistollings,
left in idle
court records of the period show a picturesque assortment of assaults, street-
Men who
and
gougings,
took such methods to
differences were
the
like.
adjust their
show any great respect to a prosecutor aged twenty-one. The majesty of the law had need of a vig not
to
apt
orous rather than
and
the
a learned representative ; representative had need of other
weapons than those supplied by the law books if he meant to make his authority re spected and yet keep a whole skin on his If he proved weak and timid, he body. was sure to be despised ; if determined and relentless,
he was
incautious get
sure to
make enemies
;
if
and unwary, he would probably
himself
shot.
It
is
doubtful, however,
any better man than young Jackson could have been found for the place, and that is
if
almost
same
the
thing
as
saying
that
no
better place could have been found for him. To the office and his new surroundings he
brought
manded,
the
qualities
they
a will that no
man
supremely
de
ever subdued,
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS
19
a desperate courage which not even the Tennesseans could match, and a swift, intuitive to act in emergencies. According to all accounts, he was success ful from the first in his trying work, and
perception of the
success
his
the
community.
quainted, for his He ling about.
On
brought him other work
that
lawyer and a rapid
as a in
in
way
his
to
rise
He
prominence became well ac
work required much learned
the country
he was
long journeys
lay
he
slept
alone
in
itself.
frequently in learned their
danger from the Indians, and ways and how to cope with them. times
travel
Some
the woods, or
even
night awake, his hand on his rifle. saved his readiness and nerve alone
all
Once
himself and a party of travellers from sur Whether he dealt with prise and massacre.
who
pathway through the wilderness, or white men who would not let the law take its course, it is not on record Indians
beset
his
he ever turned aside from his purpose. In ten years he was the possessor of a con that
siderable
estate,
chiefly
in
land.
And
he
had not accumulated property by neglecting
ANDREW JACKSON
20
his
duties
as
When
solicitor.
certain
in
truders on Indian lands were giving trouble, Governor Blount said Let the district "
:
attorney, will
be
Mr. Jackson, be certain
to
offenders will be
But the
his
duty,
He had
attorney did not escape of his firmness and cour "
so
many
country he
"
difficulties
has come down to us.
ludicrous
have been scuffles
:
a reputa Amass of anec
Some
early quarrels, of these affairs
undignified
in
that
soon got
tion for readiness to fight. dote and tradition about his
to
the
district
even in that
seem
and
He
punished."
the consequences age.
do
informed.
and rather
one of them Jackson
overcame a huge antagonist by poking him with the point or, as Jackson himself pro of a fence rail. nounced it, the pint "
"
Other quarrels
followed
cedure of the duello.
the
dignified
They were
all
pro
subject
which our gentler civil ization pronounces on violence as a means of ending disputes, but no doubt they helped
to the condemnation
young lawyer into the prominence he had won by the time Tennessee was ready to become a State.
the
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS The most important event period
was
It
of
Jackson
s
life
solemnized
first
of
was
this
21
early
his
marriage. early in 1791, and a
second time in January, 1794. The second ceremony was due to the painful discovery that at the time of the first his wife was not fully released
was
from a former marriage.
She
daughter of John Donelson, the pioneer, and when Jackson first came to Tennessee she was already married to one Rachel,
Lewis
Robards.
husband. wife
He
made
concerning
was
Robards
jealous his against
charges
several
a
men,
and
finallv
concerning Jackson, although the facts that have come down to us and the opinions of those to
who knew most about
show that Jackson acted
a distressed woman, and
protector of
committed
knowingly his
accuser
Donelson
the affair all go as a chivalrous
s
had
home. been
any offence Robards and
married
never
against
Rachel
in
Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, and Virginia had no law of divorce. In 1790 the Virginia leg acting on a petition of authorized the supreme court of
islature,
Robards,
Kentucky
ANDREW JACKSON
22
and grant him a divorce
to try the case
should find
if it
and Somehow, Jackson and
his charges against his wife
Jackson to be
true.
Mrs. Robards were persuaded that this act of the Virginia legislature was itself a divorce, In 1793, how and so they were married.
Robards brought suit before the Ken tucky court, and the court, finding on the ever,
facts as they then existed,
when the accused
couple were living together as man and wife, In order, therefore, to granted the decree.
make
sure of a
legal marriage,
Jackson had
ceremony repeated. It was a most unfortunate situation for an honest
man and an
honest
woman, and sad
dened a union which was otherwise pure and for to the day of her death Jack beautiful ;
son and derly.
ment by the
his wife loved
It
of
brought
bitterness
each other most ten
into
his
life
and passion.
slightest hint, referred
to
a new ele
Whoever, the irregu
marriage, became his mortal For such he kept his pistols always enemy. ready, and more than one incautious man found to his cost what it meant to breathe
larity
of
his
THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS
One
word on that forbidden subject. such man was no less a person than a
Sevier,
struck
"
Commonwealth
the
such
a
23
John
Builder,"
who
good blow for American
in
King s Moun tain in the revolutionary war, and who was Governor of Tennessee when the trouble dependence
at
the
battle
of
with Jackson occurred.
The
painful facts of his marriage, and the
criticism of
his wife,
had another
effect
on
Jackson which in time became important to the whole country. Through that experience his chivalrous
feeling for
women was
devel
oped into a quixotic readiness to be the cham pion of any woman whom }ie found distressed or slandered/ ?*
II
THE BENCH: THE MILITIA
CONGKESS:
IN 1796 Jackson took
mem
his seat as a
ber of the convention called to frame a con for
stitution
the
State
Tennessee.
of
He
thus entered on a brief career of vice,
in
the
course
of
which
public ser he held three
In the autumn of 1796 important offices. he was chosen to be Tennessee s first repre sentative in Congress.
appointed
A
United States
year later he was Senator, and held
he resigned in April, 1798. until 1804, he was a justice of
the office -until
From 1798 the
Supreme Court
These were a
high places
for so
man, and one naturally expects
grapher
to
course while
he
all
of Tennessee.
held
linger
for
many pages
he held them.
them
is
indeed
The
young
his
bio
over his fact
important,
that
for
it
shows how strongly he had established him But very little need be self in Tennessee.
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA said
what
of
he
while
did
he
held
25
them.
Indeed, it is amazing how little can be said. In the convention he served on the eommittee
to
draft the
constitution
and took a
somewhat prominent part in the debates, and there is also a tradition that he sug but no nota gested the name of the State ;
ble feature of
to
him.
to
the
the constitution
is
clearly
due
might, however, have been due presence in the convention of such It
adopted a rule of order which throws into comical prominence fiery spirits
as
he
that
the warlike character
Rule 8 declared
"
:
it
early Tennesseans. that digresseth from
of
He
the subject to fall on the person of any mem ber shall be suppressed by the Speaker." in
The
scant
the
House
Senate
is
of
record
of
Jackson
s
services
Representatives and in the little importance to us save in of
throws some light on his it political opinions at that period gives us a glimpse of him as he appeared against the
three respects.
It
;
background of the most elegant society then existing in America, for Congress was sit ting in Philadelphia, which had sixty-five
ANDREW JACKSON
26
and it led to one or which had an important
thousand inhabitants
two
friendships
?
bearing on his later career.
His opinions, however, were not expressed in speeches. He addressed the House but twice, both times on a resolution for paying troops whom General Sevier had led against the Indians without any order from the
The
national government.
resolution passed,
and added to Jackson s popularity at home. In the Senate it is not on record that he ever spoke
Thomas
at
Many
all.
years afterwards, was Vice-President
who
Jefferson,
in 1797-8, gave to Daniel Webster a rather curious explanation of the Tennessee Sena tor s
The accuracy
silence.
of
Webster
s
report of his famous interview with Jeffer son at Monticello in 1824 has been ques tioned, but
ferson
if
said of
terrible.
it
is
correct, this is
Jackson
When
I
what Jef
u His
:
was
passions are the president of
Senate, he was Senator, and he could never
speak
on
feelings.
peatedly,
account I
have
of
seen
the
rashness
him attempt
and as often choke with
of it
rage."
his
re
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA His
show
votes,
however,
and
a
few
27
letters
enough where he stood on the Parties were hardly questions of the day. yet formed under the Constitution, but in the
clearly
strife
between the
Hamil
followers of
who went for a strong national govern ment, and who became the Federalist party, ton,
on the
one
hand, and, on the
the followers of rights
of
national
Jefferson,
other hand,
who went
for the
States and distrusted a strong government, and who became the
the
Kepublican party, he sided with Jefferson. Indeed, he belonged to the extreme faction of the Republicans, to which the term Demo "
crats
He
"
was applied,
favored
the
at
first
French,
as
a
reproach.
who were
at
war
with England, and opposed the treaty with England which John Jay had just negotiated.
He
even went so
others,
against
far as to vote, with eleven
the
address
presented
to
President Washington after his final speech to Congress. The address was mainly given over to thanks
for
Washington s great ser vices to his country and to praise of his administration. The handful that opposed
ANDREW JACKSON
28 it
One of courage. Livingston, of New York,
showed at
Edward wards
least
after
defended himself
tinction
between
At
ministration. of
them,
France
by drawing a Washington and his that
time
were
dis
ad
the
partisans over the firm
very bitter course Washington took to keep the
coun
try out of the European contest, and over the treaty with England. the men with Livingston was one of
whom ing
Jackson
at
friendship.
gentleman,
a
this
He
time formed a
was
very able
last
an
accomplished lawyer, and an ad
vanced Kepublican. Another was William The Duane, Jefferson s friend, the editor of Aurora," a newspaper which helped to build "
A third was up the Republican party. Aaron Burr, who then stood very high among the Republican leaders, and who excelled all other public men in charm of manner.
Another leading Republican of the time, Albert recalled Jackson after Gallatin, wards as
"
a
lank, uncouth-looking per sonage, with long locks of hair hanging over tall,
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA and a cue down
his face, eel-skin
;
dress
his
his
29
back tied in an
singular,
manners
his
and deportment that of a rough backwoods man." Taking this with Jefferson s descrip tion of
him,
seems clear that he made no
it
strong impression at Philadelphia, and found himself out of place in the national legisla
would have dreamed that the accomplished Livingston should win his highest fame by preparing a state paper for
ture.
Who,
then,
this unlettered person s signature
;
that this
rough backwoodsman should alone of all Americans surpass the polished Burr in the
charm
of
his
manners
;
that
Duane
s
little
son should one day be called by his father s unpromising acquaintance to a place such as
even Jefferson
upon
Duane
friendship never conferred himself. Of all who knew s
Jackson in Washington, Burr seems to have
had the strongest hopes
for his future.
Scant as are the traces of his labors as a legislator,
his career
even
scanter
are
the
records
on the bench during the
The
of
six years
reports of the decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court in this period
that followed.
ANDREW JACKSON
SO
are
extremely meagre preserved as Jackson told of of
the
the
decision
But
s.
Judge Jackson, solicitor,
one
not
;
like
the
the
general,
is
stories
stories told
the
president,
One must suffice. A gigantic blacksmith named Bean had committed a are
legion.
crime and the "
Summon
me,"
walked down criminal,
sheriff
and
dared not arrest him.
said the judge,
from
the
arrested
was judge that his Sevier, who was again came finally to a head. he
the
two men had been
and himself
bench, found the him. It was while
with
quarrel
governor
in
John 1803,
Two
years before, rivals for the office
major-general in the militia, and by a single vote Jackson had won, so that he was
of
and judge met in what
both general
governor prove a fatal
was
killed,
when
he and
seemed
likely
the to
combat.
However, neither and the quarrel was patched up.
In 1804 Judge Jackson resigned. He had not yet found his true place in the public service. militia,
But he kept his commission in the and those who like to magnify the
work of chance may argue that the
single
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA vote by which he
31
got that office determined
his career.
had years to live before it was made plain to him what his career should be and during those years, from 1804 to
But
he
;
given chiefly to energies were His affairs had be planting and business. come somewhat involved while he was a his
1813,
he entered judge, and to restore his fortunes In this and into trade and set up a store. other
named tween
Tennessean stalwart a enterprises John Coffee was his partner, and be the two there grew a bond of friend
which
ship
Jackson
lasted
had
until
broke
it.
shrewdness
in
death
considerable
paying his debts promptly was of great value, but he
trade,
and
his
reputation
had more success ing
for
in planting
and
stock-rais
than in any other money-making enter
His judgment of horses was excep From his famous stallion, tionally good.
prise.
Truxton, a great racer in his day, many Tennessee thoroughbreds of the present time are descended. Horse-racing was Jackson s favorite
sport,
and
was a source
of
profit
ANDREW JACKSON
30
are
extremely meagre preserved as Jackson told of of
the
the
decision
But
s.
Judge Jackson, solicitor,
one
not
;
like
the
the
general,
is
stories
stories told
the
president,
One must suffice. A gigantic blacksmith named Bean had committed a are
legion.
crime and the "
Summon
me,"
walked down criminal,
sheriff
and
dared not arrest him.
said the judge,
from
the
arrested
he
was judge that his Sevier, who was again came finally to a head. the
two men had been
and himself
bench, found the him. It was while
with
quarrel
governor
in
John 1803,
Two
years before, rivals for the office
major-general in the militia, and by a single vote Jackson had won, so that he was of
both general and judge governor met prove a fatal
was
killed,
in
what
when
he and
seemed
likely
the to
combat.
However, neither and the quarrel was patched up.
In 1804 Judge Jackson resigned. He had not yet found his true place in the public service. militia,
work
But he kept his commission in the and those who like to magnify the
of
chance
may argue
that
the
single
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA vote by which he
31
got that office determined
his career.
But he had years to live before it was made plain to him what his career should be and during those years, from 1804 to ;
energies were given chiefly to His affairs had be planting and business. come somewhat involved while he was a
1813,
his
judge, and to restore his fortunes he entered In this and into trade and set up a store.
other
enterprises
a
stalwart
Tennessean
Coffee was his partner, and be two there grew a bond of friend
named John tween the
which
ship
lasted
until
death
broke
it.
had considerable shrewdness in and his reputation for paying his trade, debts promptly was of great value, but he had more success in planting and stock-rais Jackson
ing
than in any other money-making enter
His judgment of horses was excep From his famous stallion, tionally good. prise.
Truxton, a great racer in his day, many Tennessee thoroughbreds of the present time are descended. Horse-racing was Jackson s favorite
sport,
and
was a source of
profit
ANDREW JACKSON
32
In 1805
also.
he
first
occupied the
which became so well known as where he built
mitage,"
three rooms in
pictures
a
"
estate
The Her
block-house
of
the mansion so often displayed was not built until 1819. In ;
the log-house, however, no less than in the mansion which was to follow, he offered to
high and low degree a hospitality which would have been extraordinary out guests of side of
the
Southern States.
Probably his on his manners,
had some effect and helped him to acquire that mingling of distinction which in those cordiality and planter
life
days gave a peculiar
men
charm
to
the
gentle
of the South.
Even
in
his
quarrels, violent, passionate,
and wilful as he was, he usually bore him self
the
make a deep impression on impressionable people among whom he in a
way
to
Unfortunately, his quarrels did not grow fewer as he grew older, for he never learned the difference between mere opposi lived.
tion
tious
to
his
and
himself.
which might be conscien honest, and personal enmity to will,
Like most men of that region and
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA he
33
his
personal feelings, his. likes and dislikes, into all the affairs of life. time,
carried
In 1803-4, when he wished to be governor Tennessee con of Orleans Territory, the urged President Jefferson to ap him, but he was represented to the
gressmen
point President
in
arbitrary
engaged
The worst
as
man
"a
his
of
all
and
disputes."
celebrated his
passions,
and frequently
disposition,
in broils
most
violent
of
and
quarrels
perhaps
was
that
the
with
Charles Dickinson, a young man of promi It nence, a duellist, and a marvellous shot.
was a long quarrel, beginning, apparently, over a projected race between Truxton and
Plow Bay, a horse
in
which
Dickinson was
Other
persons were involved before the quarrel ended. General Jackson interested.
publicly caned one Thomas Swann who had contrived to get himself mixed up in the affair.
had
a
Coffee, acting
duel
with
as
and
s
friend,
McNairy, and was Finally, for no sufficient
one
severely wounded. cause which the printed
Jackson
Jackson
Dickinson
accounts
met
in
discover,
Kentucky,
ANDREW JACKSON
34
each bent
on
his
killing
The word
man.
being given, Dickinson fired quickly, and with perfect aim ; a puff of dust flew up from the breast of his feet,
Jackson
drew
slowly raised ger.
The
cock.
He
his left
cocked
ately, fired,
arm
his pistol,
hammer it
But he kept
s coat.
across his breast,
and pulled the
stopped again,
and killed
his
at
the
trig half-
aimed deliber
man.
His own
he owed to the thinness of his body, for Dickinson had hit the spot where he thought
life
his adversary s heart
was beating.
Jackson
had purposely allowed the other to fire first, expecting to be hit, and fearing that if he, too,
fired
his aim.
hurriedly, the shock would spoil I should have hit him," he said
"
afterwards,
"had
he shot
me through
the
supposed that his hatred of Dickinson was really due, not to the con
brain."
It
is
fused dispute over the race, but to something Dickinson had said in his cups about Mrs.
Jackson.
Whatever
the
provocation,
the
story is revolting enough; but the picture of Jackson s grim, erect figure, his
bloody
hawklike eyes terrible with hatred, the ball
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA in
his
take
men
his
in
pistol
hand,
must
place alongside those other pictures statues of him which all Americans
its
and know, But was
breast, the
35
x
Jackson was a
if
also the
terrible
most faithful of
enemy, he
friends.
Many
and hated him many also loved him, and he himself would go as far feared
;
an enemy. One of his friends was a certain Patten Ander to help a friend as to crush
son,
into
who seems always trouble,
but
to
whom
have been getting the general never
Once Anderson got
deserted.
a fight
into
one end of a long table where a public dinner was being served, and was in great at
danger until Jackson, who sat at the other end,
noticed
he
Patten,"
the
the cried,
scuffle.
"
I
m
coining,
and promptly leaped on
and strode through dinner to the Anderson was killed at last, and
table
rescue.
Jackson slayer.
was a witness He was asked
at if
Anderson was not given "
quarrelling. friend,
enemy
Patten to
Sir,"
trial
the
unfortunate
in
said
Anderson,
scoundrels."
the
his
of
lifetime
his
to
Jackson, my was a natural "
ANDREW JACKSON
36
Aaron Burr came very near involving him in serious difficul In 1805, when Burr was on his first ties. His
friendship
visit to the
for
Southwest, he went to Nashville,
and was entertained most cordially at The He was there again on his Hermitage. return, and made with his host a contract and supplies to be used in that mysterious enterprise which has so puzzled Burr declared he had American historians.
for
boats
no
designs
i
hostile
to
the
United
States,
and Jackson believed him. When, a year later, the whole country was in a sort of panic over Burr s suspected treason, Jack son
offered
vices of
to
President
Jefferson
the militia under his
the
ser
command, and
promptly took measures to thwart any trea sonable movement that might be afoot in the
West
;
but he was soon convinced that Burr
was suspected unjustly, and never for a mo He went ment deserted him in his trouble. his and to Richmond to trial, testify at
made a
public speech full of bitterness against those who, as he thought, He himself were persecuting his friend.
while
there
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA was
at first strongly suspected of
Burr
in
s
project, but
there
his
life
country
looked
absolutely no
ever
an enemy of
upon than
otherwise
complicity
Andrew Jackson
reason to believe that in
is
37
as
his
own mortal
His faults were many, but he loved country simply, and with all his heart. foe.
seems
his
his
however, that Jackson, and in fact the whole Southwest, sympathized It
clear,
very strongly with in that quarter at tertain
;
Florida
United
which many thought Burr to^en-
the
design
first
the design, namely, of seizing or Texas, or perhaps both. States
were
at
that
time,
West The
as
they were before and after, very close to war with Spain. Spain still had possession of the Floridas, although the
that
West
Gulf
coast
"
Island
the
of
Florida,
from
New
Louisiana
little
when
the
interest
extending along the Perdido River to the
Orleans,"
Jackson
Eastern in
the
was included
To
purchase. of West
Spaniards out ardent desire of fore,
the
United States claimed
drive
Florida
was
in
the
an
Ten years be States had shown s.
development
of
the
ANDREW JACKSON
38
Southwest, and had seemed to prefer com mercial privileges with the Spanish colonies to
the
free
navigation
of
the
Mississippi,
which the Western country needed for its development, Spanish agents had endeav ored
to
stir
disaffection
up
in
the
South
that looking to the separation of At that time, many region from the Union. people in the East, knowing little of the
west,
Westerners, had suspected them of lending
That tempting whispers. was one reason why such a panic arose over an ear
to
Spain
s
Burr, for he had always been a champion of the Southwest, and the pioneers liked him.
After the
failure
and disgrace
stage was
cleared
for another
southwestward likely to
take
role
as
Burr the
leader in
And
movement. the
of
the
who
patriotic
the so
and
warlike general of the Tennessee militia ? Jackson had a chance to play that role
way when Silas Dinsmore, the United States agent among the Choctaws,
in
a
small
whose lands lay in Mississippi Territory, re fused to
Choctaw
persons to pass through the country with negroes unless they
allow
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA showed
more had a law
the
for
passports
39
Dins-
negroes.
Congress behind him, but a treaty between the United States and the Choctaws provided for a road through the
Choc taw
of
country which
should
be
"a
highway for citizens of the United States and the Choctaws." Jackson, passing along the road with some slaves, dared the agent to
He
interfere.
also
exerted
himself
to
removal of Dinsmore, and, as his wont was, made a personal matter of the dispute. His feeling was so strong that bring about
years
ing to
the
when Dinsmore, happen meet him, made a courteous advance,
afterwards,
the general sternly repelled
The 1812.
it.
Dinsmore occurred in Andrew Jackson was then forty-five
quarrel
with
He was well known in Tennessee years old. as a successful planter, a breeder and racer of horses, a swearer of ful
and generous man to
man
faith
his friends, a
chiv
women, a hospitable man home, a desperate and relentless man
alrous his
mighty oaths, a
to
personal conflicts, a man who the thing he set himself to do.
always
But
at in
did
as yet
ANDREW JACKSON
40
he had never found anything to do that was important enough to bring him before the Outside of Tennessee, country at large. few men had ever heard his name. At
Washington he was probably distrusted, so far as he was known at all, because of his championship of Burr and his quarrel with Dinsmore, and because he had been for Monroe instead of Madison for President. He was ardently in favor of war with Great
because
Britain
of
the
impressment
American seamen and other grievances which the United States had borne for years, but there seemed to be little likeli hood of his getting a chance to play a part of
in the
war
declared
if
it
in
should come.
1812.
June,
The war was A member of
Congress, on his way home after voting for the declaration, had a talk with Aaron Burr,
who was now York.
word
"
is
I
living
know,"
not worth
you may
tell
said
much
New that my
retirement in
in
"
Burr, with Madison
him from me
that there
;
is
but
an
unknown man in the West, named Andrew Jackson, who will do credit to a commission in the
army."
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA
Jackson was twice
It is said, indeed, that
recommended commission
Benton told
found
in
a
Congress how a
for
a
mail
officer
one
H.
Thomas he
himself, in
young lawyer
militia
his
later,
years
1812
in
and
ville
in
Madison
regular army, and twice
the
in
Many-
rejected.
who was
President
to
41
under
Nash
Jackson,
morning an act
of
authorizing O the President to acIt was cept organized bodies of volunteers.
Congress O
a raw day in February, but young Benton at once drew up a plan for offering Jack son s militia command to the government,
The Hermitage to find the general, and came upon him," so Mr. Benton s
rode "
to
story goes, before the his knees.
the
"in
fire,
He
a
sitting
twilight,
lamb and a
started a
child
little,
alone
between
called a ser
vant to remove the two innocents to another room, and explained to me child had cried because the
how
it
was.
The
lamb was out
in
and begged him to bring it in which he had done to please the child, his That is a far pleasanter pic adopted son." the
cold,
ture than the other
we saw
just
now
of Jack-
ANDREW JACKSON
42
son the duellist, but this also is a character istic picture, and should go into the gallery ; for Jackson, like
another
many
man who
has
been denied children of his own, was singu It is certainly larly tender with little folk.
good to be able to think of him, fierce man that he was, as turning from fondling a child to enter
Mr. )
on his
Benton
soldier s career. s
account
of
matter
the
is
questioned, but it is certain that Jackson offered his services, with those of 2500 vol unteers,
of war.
but
left
after
immediately
the
declaration
The government accepted the offer, him in idleness until October, 1812,
when for eral
the governor of Tennessee was asked volunteers, ostensibly to reinforce Gen
Wilkinson at
New
The gov
Orleans.
ernor in turn called upon General Jackson, and he, setting to work with the utmost
enthusiasm, issued to the volunteers the first of those eminently Jacksonian addresses
wherewith he was wont to hearten his lowers. set
On
January
7,
forth, the infantry
1813, the
by
fol
command
river, the cavalry,
under John Coffee, by land.
By
the middle
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA
43
of February all were united at Natchez, Mis the expedition was halted sissippi, where to
await
Week
further orders.
after
week
passed by, and finally, late in March, to the general s rage and disgust, he heard from the Secretary of
War
that the causes of the
expedition had ceased to exist, and that he dismissed was to consider his command "
from
the
word
as
public to
men home Jackson
any
service
"
provision
and for
not
getting
one the
!
s
resolution
was
instantly taken refused to dis
He and firmly carried out. band the men at Natchez, and marched them home, pledging his own credit for the neces His course commanded the sary expenses. approval of the State and won him the de votion of the men. It was the first of many occasions on which, while acting as a military officer, he dared to do the thing he thought
be right, no matter how irregular it was. On the journey home, his soldierly behavior
to
in trying circumstances
nickname. "
tough as
won him
his
famous
The men spoke of him as being and so came to call him hickory,"
ANDREW JACKSON
44
and
with affection, Old Before he reached Nashville he
"
Hickory,"
Hickory."
again
offered
but
Canada,
dismissed
it,
"
finally,
his
command
for
no reply came. and it seemed as
service
In if
in
May, he
he were not
going to have any soldier s career at all. Benton, who had served in the expedition as an aid, went to Washington and with diffi
War
culty persuaded the the expenses of the
When find
he
that
returned in
his brother,
Department to pay march from Natchez.
to
Nashville,
a duel between
and one
acted as Carroll
s
it
was
Jesse Benton,
Carroll, the general
second.
A
to
had
bitter
quarrel between Jackson and the Bentons followed ;
before
Jackson
swore
by the Eternal he would horsewhip Thomas Benton on sight. They met at a Nashville hotel. Jesse Benton was there, and also John Coffee and Stokeley Hays, friends of Jack son s. There was a rough-and-tumble fight. Thomas Benton fell down a stairway Jesse Benton was stabbed Jackson was shot in the shoulder and severely wounded. He was put to bed in the old Nashville Inn, a it
ended,
"
"
;
;
CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA
43
famous hostelry of the time, and while he lay helpless from a wound so ignobly won, the call was on
summon him fittest.
way which should at last the work for which he was
its
to
He was
to pass
from an action such
no biographer can defend to deeds which none can fail to praise. Jackson the duel as
list
Yet
must give place all
change the
man
fighting of scene of
is
to
Jackson the
akin,
and
it
was but a
and
purpose that turned the tavern brawl into the man
The Horseshoe and New Orleans happened that there was nowhere
of
soldier.
;
for
in
it
the
Southwest, perhaps nowhere in the country,
any other man quite so sure to have his way, whether in a street fight or in a battle.
Ill
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA
THE
that
call
now came
Jackson was
to
due to a very picturesque character of the times the man who is said to have chiefly
:
been the only rival of Burr and Jackson in the impression he made upon all beholders
by
his
The
manner and bearing.
call
came,
indeed, from
the southward, but probably it would never have come but for the work of
Tecumseh (or Tecumthe), the famous Shawnee warrior and orator, whose home was in For years Tecumseh had the Northwest. been
striving
West and
to
unite
South
in
the
a
red
men
supreme
of
effort
the to
back the swelling tide of white immi In 1811 he made a pilgrimage to gration. roll
the
southern
tribes,
and
his
most
fervent
appeal was to that powerful body of Indians known as the Creek Confederacy, who lived in what is now the eastern part of Alabama
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA and
the
These
southwestern
proud
divided
47
and two
into
of part Georgia. Indians were warlike
branches.
The
Upper
Creeks had their homes along the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, and their villages extended
some distance down the Alabama, which is formed by the junction of those two streams.
The Lower Creek towns were on both sides of the Chattahoochee, which now separates southern
The
Georgia from
southern
Alabamao
Confederacy, a loose sort of alliance, claimed for a hunting ground the lands extending westward to the watershed so-called
between the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, But in which unite to form the Mobile.
and along the Mobile and the Tombigbee were growing The growth of settlements of white men. these settlements was watched with disfavor and suspicion by the Creeks. A strong party, the fork
f
the
Red
of
these two
rivers
Sticks, or hostiles, listened readily
Tecumseh s teaching. When he left for his home in the distant Northwest many were to
already Lakes."
dancing
the
"
war-dance
of
the
ANDREW JACKSON
48
The outbreak of the war with England came in good time for Tecnmseh s plans.
He
at once
put himself in alliance with the
and
British,
in
the
summer
1813
of
the
Creek Eed Sticks heard that they could get arms and ammunition at Pensacola, the cap ital of
with
Spain was at peace but Red Sticks States,
Spanish Florida.
the
United
were seen thronging to Pensacola and re The turning with arms and ammunition. whites
of
the
Mobile
country, then part of
organized for
and
Tombigbee
Mississippi
Territory, a party re
defence,
waylaid Pensacola, and were
turning from victorious, then
defeated,
Battle of Burnt Corn.
in
the
at
first
so-called
Thoroughly alarmed,
now took refuge in stockades and forts. The military authorities of the United States made ready to defend the
settlers
Mobile, but recently seized from the Span iards. At Fort Mims, near the point where the Alabama form the and Tombigbee five
hundred
and
men, women, and children were pent up in an illplanned inclosure, defended by a small force Mobile,
fifty-three
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA an
under officer
incompetent
named
though
On
Beasley.
49
courageous
the morning of
1813, Beasley was writing to General Claiborne, that he superior,
August his
30,
any number of the enemy. At that very moment a thousand warriors lay hidden in a ravine but a few hundred yards from the open gate of the could
hold
stockade.
the
against
Their principal leader was William
Weatherford,
much
fort
"
the
Red
a half-breed
Eagle,"
and dauntless courage. At noon, when the drums beat the garrison of
intelligence
to dinner, the
Indians rushed
At
the hot
the end of
mained of the
to the attack.
August day there
fort but a smouldering
ruins, ghastly with
human
bodies.
re
heap of
Only a
handful of the inmates escaped to spread the horrible
news among
runners
Swift
set
and northward over
the
whole
for
off
the
terrified
settlers.
westward, shudder ran
eastward,
A
help.
The
country.
Southwest
from the remoter events of the war in Canada to the disaster at home. The Creeks!" Weatherford "Fort Minis!" were the words on everybody s lips, while turned
"
"
"
!
ANDREW JACKSON
50
the
major-general of
still
lay helpless
From
Tennessee militia
the
from
Mississippi on the east,
his shameful
on
the
wound.
west,
from
and from Tennessee Georgia on the north, volunteer armies were soon on the march for the Creek country. Ten two different bodies of One came from East Tennessee, com
nessee, indeed, sent
men.
manded by General John Cocke the other came from West Tennessee, and at its head, pale and weak, his arm in a sling, his shoul ;
der too sore lette,
the
from his bed.
legislature,
an epau had issued
the weight of
was Andrew Jackson.
his orders
of
to bear
come
He When
to
a member
discuss
the
ex
him, expressed regret that he be able to lead it, the sick man
pedition with
would not
muttered, with would lead it.
the inevitable
oath, that
But from the beginning
he to
military service he was pay ing the penalty, not merely of the quarrel ing which had brought him wounds, but of
the end
of
his
intemperate eating and drinking, which had he was ruined his Sometimes digestion. tortured
for hours with pains
that could
be
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA relieved
only by
garment hung the back of a
body, like a downward, over
his
hanging dry, face
to
chair, or,
51
if
he were on the
march, over a sapling stripped and bent for the purpose. By the second
was
at
The
entire
Its
supplies
week
in
Huntsville, on the
October, Jackson
Tennessee
River.
command numbered about 2700. were to
come
by water from
Knoxville, in East Tennessee, but the upper part of the river was not navigable by reason of
the
dryness
stormed
at
drilling
his
with Coffee
the
of
the delay, but
men and s
cavalry.
season.
Jackson
used the time in
scouring the country Then he cut his way
over the mountains to a higher point on the find to the supplies. His river, hoping
energy was great, but without food he could not, as he desired, dash at once into the
He moved southward enemy s country. when he had food, halted when it gave out, and
finally
the
Coosa.
From
his
which he named Fort Strother, dispatched Coffee to strike a first blow
camp he
reached
there,
against
the
Creek
town of
Tallusahatchee.
ANDREW JACKSON
52
Coffee destroyed rior
for
escaped,
revengeful. living infant
A
town, and not a war the whites were bitterly
the
slain
was
mother
found
embracing a
Jackson himself took care of the it
child, sent
The Hermitage, and he and
to
reared
to
it
his
wife
manhood.
The next blow was struck miles
thirty
dead.
the
among
below Fort
at
Talladega,
Strother,
where a
friendly Indians were besieged by a larger body of Red Sticks. Relying on General White, who was in the neighbor
body
of
hood with a force of Cocke seans,
to
protect
marched
by
however,
a
night
Fort to
dispatch
s
East Tennes-
Strother,
Jackson
Talladega.
There,
reached
him
from
White, who announced that he must return to Cocke. So at sunrise Jackson threw himself on the enemy, routed him with great loss, relieved the friendly Indians, and then
marched back
and the
sick
to
camp, to find no provisions,
and wounded
as
hungry
From
as the
that time the struggle with ine was for weeks his principal business. rest.
as
he was, he and
his
officers
fam Ill
would have
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA nothing the
men
could not have.
A
53
soldier
coming to him to beg for food, he thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out some acorns, and courteously invited the man to share his dinner.
Jackson was
Cocke
for
the
disposed to blame General trouble about supplies, be
cause Cocke had plies it
undertaken to obtain sup but in Knoxville for both commands ;
seems clear now that
Cocke was not
to
Soon after the battle of Talladega Jackson s feeling against Cocke was strength blame.
ened.
The warriors
of
the
Hillabee towns,
a part of the Creek Confederacy, sent a mes He senger to Jackson to sue for peace.
gave them his terms, and the messenger was returning to the Hillabees when General
White, of Cocke s command, ignorant of what was going on, marched upon a Hilla bee town, killed many of the warriors, and captured the
women and
children.
Jackson,
grieved and enraged at a blunder which prob ably prolonged the war and certainly made it
fiercer,
was
persuaded that Cocke, was trying to win laurels
easily
his inferior officer,
ANDREW JACKSON
54
for himself,
and
in the
to do grave injustice
end
to
a
his anger led
man who
him
appears
been faithful and honorable.
to have
And now
for
ten weeks
the will
of
An
drew Jackson was tried to the uttermost. His starving troops were constantly on the The command was made verge of mutiny. the militia, called into up of two classes, service
against
the
Indians,
and the volun
who had first enlisted for down the Mississippi. The
teers,
the expedi
tion
militia, dis
heartened,
started
for Tennessee.
Jackson
drew
up the volunteers across their path Then way, and drove them back to camp. the
in
their
prepared to move northward, and he stopped them with The mounted men were per the militia. volunteers,
mitted
turn,
go to Huntsville to get food for their horses, and most of them went on to to
their homes.
The
infantry, sullen
and
dis
were kept in camp only by the pro mise that in two days supplies would come trustful,
from Nashville, whither Jackson was send ing letter after letter to stir up the authori At the end of two days nothing had ties.
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA come.
A
fend the
55
few brave men volunteered to de
camp while with the
rest the
gen
marched northward in search of food. The supplies soon came in sight, and the men were fed but now they refused to go eral
;
back to camp, and again turned northward. Jackson, with Coffee and a handful of others, threw himself
in
front
of
them,
and with
blazing eyes and dreadful oaths cowed them into obedience. Again they threatened mu tiny, and once more, alone, on horseback, a
hand, his disabled arm in its he faced them, and swore he would
musket in sling,
shoot the
his
first
man who
stirred.
They
hesi
tated, wavered, yielded.
Seeing,
done
with
nothing could be volunteers, Jackson finally
however, the
that
permitted them to go, keeping with him the The militia and a small body of Cocke s men.
term would expire the term of Cocke s men
militia claimed that their
January 4, 1814 would expire a week ;
ing reinforcements,
Anxiously await Jackson got, instead, a
later.
from Governor Blount advising him But he would not to give up the struggle.
letter
ANDREW JACKSON
56
up
give
;
magnificent spirit rose higher He wrote the governor blow.
his
with every a letter that taught him his duty. Through the governor, in fact, that letter roused the
and soon a new army was on the way from West Tennessee, while Cocke was marching another force southward from East Tennessee. With some five hundred raw recruits that reached him before Cocke s whole
first
State,
command
ther.
He
left,
Jackson held Fort Stro-
even ventured to make a raid into
enemy s country, aiming at the town of Emuckfau. The Indians attacked him. He repulsed them, but soon made up his mind to return. On his way back, he was again the
attacked
guard was panic and valor
of
crossing a creek, his rear driven in, and for a moment a
while
But the a few men saved the army, and he rout
was
imminent.
got safely back to Fort Strother. He did not move again until the middle
March, and then he had five thousand men. Cocke, for a speech addressed to his
of
troops when they threatened mutiny, was To stamp sent to Nashville under arrest.
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA insubordination
out
the
among
57
men from
West Tennessee, a youth named Woods, who had been found guilty of mutiny, was The thirtyshot before the whole army. ninth regiment of regulars was now a part command, and the general proposed
the
of
them, whenever occasion offered, to suppress insubordination among the volun use
to
But from
teers.
that
deal
to
with,
the
against
he had
and was free
who had
with the Creeks,
own
this time
so
Georgians
little
of
to
grapple far held their
and Mississip-
pians.
The
centre
of
their
resistance
was
the
Hickory Ground, near the fork of the Coosa and Tallapoosa; but the final blow was struck
between
was
a bend in the Tallapoosa midway The spot source and mouth. its
at
by the by the Indians Tohopeka Across the neck whites, The Horseshoe. of a small peninsula the hostiles had thrown
up
called
a
rough
;
line
of
breastworks.
On
banks of the river they had gathered a ber of
canoes.
force of
Ked
the
num
Within the defences was a Sticks estimated at nine hun-
ANDREW JACKSON
58
dred,
and several hundred women and
chil
dren.
Jackson moved down the Coosa nearly
even
with
Tohopeka,
to a point
established
a
new camp, and by the evening of March 28 he was in front of the enemy with about three thousand men, including a considerable body of friendly Indians. Resolving to make
thorough work of it, he dispatched Coffee, with the friendly Indians and the cavalry,
bend on the opposite bank. The next morning, with the artillery, he Coffee, opened fire on the breastworks. to surround the
meantime, threw a force across the river and attacked the enemy from the rear. The line
was carried by assault. The As usual, slaughter of Creeks was dreadful. Five hundred and they fought to the last. fifty-seven bodies were found in the bend, of breastworks
and many perished trying to escape across the river. Jackson s loss was about two hundred killed and wounded.
Tohopeka broke down the organized ance
few
of
days
the
Indians.
later,
turned
When
resist
Jackson, a southward, he was
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA able
to
march on
to
the
59
Hickory Ground
The Red without fighting another battle. Sticks for the most part fled to their kin dred, the Seminoles, in Florida; but some came
and submitted which had crushed them. in
to
the
iron
hand
Jackson had been
Hickory Ground but a short time when Weatherford himself came in and surren at the
Some
men, remembering Fort Mims, would have done violence to the fallen Soon Jackson protected him. chief, but dered.
of the
afterwards, General Pinckney, of the regular army, arrived at Fort Jackson, which had
been built in the river fork, and took com mand. When he ordered the Tennesseans to return to their
them,
and
his
gave him the
homes, Jackson went with
fellow
first
of
citizens
Nashville
many triumphal
recep work in the wilder
His eight months ness had made him easily the tions.
at
first
man
of
Georgia had had a better chance than Tennessee to crush the Indians, for the Tennessee.
distance and the natural obstacles were less
;
but Georgia had no such leader as Andrew Jackson. Another reward soon reached him.
ANDREW JACKSON
60
In May, General William Henry Harrison resigned his commission, and in his place Jackson was appointed major-general in the He was put army of the United States. in
command
of
including Mobile and
But on
his
southwestern
the
way
New
district,
Orleans.
to his post
he had to stop
again at Fort Jackson and complete his work among the Creeks. Acting under orders
from
the
chiefs
government,
there
he
assembled,
the
compelled
practically
all
of
whom had
been friendly to the United States during the war, to sign an "agreement and by which they ceded to the capitulation "
land which they had claimed to the west of the Coosa. He car
United States
the
all
matter through with a high hand, but the Creeks themselves admired him and ried
the
put into the agreement a cession of land to It was, of course, not permissible himself. such a gift from the other party. However, the land was part of the region claimed by the United States
for a negotiator to
and
surrendered
matter of
fact,
accept
by the Creeks,
and
as
a
Jackson never got possession
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA
61
was improperly called, was signed August 9, 1814, and then Jackson was free to take up his new duties of
it.
This
as
"
treaty,"
it
as the defender of the Southwest against the British.
Up the
to
time, except for the
this
Creeks
and
the
bloodless
war with
capture
of
Mobile, the Southwest had taken little part in the contest. On land, the war had been
North, where the Americans had been trying to wrest Canada
mainly an
affair
the
of
from the mother country, and of the North west, where the British and the Indians had
The death
taken the offensive. at
the
battle
of
Tecumseh
of
the Thames, in November,
1813, had made an end of that combination, and General William Henry Harrison had
won some honor by
his
management
of
the
But the several attempts at in vading Canada were neither successful nor campaign.
glorious.
of
the
On
the whole, the land campaigns
Americans had been
pointing.
The
indeed covered
little
utterly
navy had both on the
American
with glory, high seas and on the Great Lakes itself
disap
;
but from
ANDREW JACKSON
62
the seas, where
Great Britain
had
s
disappeared by the autumn Only a few privateers still preyed
practically
of 1814.
on
was vastly overmatched by immense naval resources, it
it
commerce.
British
And
by
the
Britain
was
now,
overthrow of Napoleon, Great
employ against America all those ships with which Nelson had won for her the empire of the sea, and those superb soldiers driven the who, under Wellington, had French out of Spain. Regiments of these left free to
veterans were sent to
Canada.
In August, an expedition under General Ross landed on the coast of Chesapeake Bay, defeated an
American force at Bladensburg, took Wash ington, and burned the capitol and the Presi dent
than
s
mansion.
ever,
and
The enemy was the
stronger
United States were
the point of exhaustion. Moreover, the ruling class
in
one
at
impor
rather country was inclined to weaken than to help the govern ment. The Federalist leaders in New Eng tant
section
of
the
land were against the French, against Presi dent Madison, against the war. They had
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA
63
been in opposition ever since President Jef ferson went into office in 1801. Distrusting
and opposing the expansion of the country in that direction, they had talked about a breaking up of the Union when Louisiana was purchased in 1803, and again when the State of Louisiana was admit ted in 1811-12. When the war began, the the Southwest,
governors of several New England States refused to turn their militia over to the
Union tures, lead,
the
In
1814, several legisla Massachusetts legislature in the
generals.
were arranging a convention to propose
far-reaching changes in the Constitution of the United States, and many feared that the
outcome
would
be
the
disruption
of
the
Union and a separate New England confed eration. True, New England men were fighting bravely by land and sea for their country, but the leading Federalists of New England were, as a rule, disaffected.
A
notable exception was John Quincy Adams, who, distrusting the leaders of his own party,
had gone over to the party of Jefferson. The time was now come for the South-
ANDREW JACKSON
64
west, the
whether
The
region or not
long distrusted, to show was loyal to the Union.
so it
British were aiming
that
at
quarter
a
Evi military and naval force. dently believing the stories of disaffection in the Southwest, they had sent ahead of their powerful
expedition
printed
invitations to the
South
western people to throw off the yoke of the Union. The Spaniards of the Gulf coast,
probably not ignorant of the American de signs on both the Floridas, and resenting the
seizure
of
Mobile, were
allies of
passive
no better than
who were
the British,
thus
enabled to use Pensacola as a base for their
campaign against Mobile,
New
Orleans, and
the great Mississippi Valley beyond.
When
Jackson reached
Mobile,
in
the
middle of August, he was already thoroughly angered with the Spaniards for harboring He refugee Creeks and giving them arms.
had
always
Floridas
;
been
which son
he had
favor
of
had been the
that
the expedition
in
seizing
real
the
object of
down
the Mississippi in 1813 commanded. The true rea
why he and
his
army were dismissed
at
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA Natchez was that the authorities at
65
Wash
ington had changed their mind about seiz In July, 1814, he wrote ing West Florida. to
Washington
sacola,
but
no
for permission to take reply came, for the
Pen-
War De
partment was occupied with General Eoss. The absurd conduct of a British officer, Colo nel
Nichols,
who was
at
Pensacola with
a
and Indians, occupying one of the two Spanish forts there, and issuing fiery proclamations, was enough to make Jackson act at once, even if he had hesi force of
British
He
tated before.
answered the colonel
s
pro But he
clamations with others equally fiery. had to wait for troops, which were to come
from the neighboring States of Tennessee, Mean Kentucky, Georgia, and Louisiana. time, in September, a British squadron
made
a determined attack on Fort Bowyer, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, and was repulsed,
with the loss of rence
and
a
its flagship,
small
achievement, which of
the
by Major
garrison,
a
Law
gallant
made a good beginning At the end of October,
campaign. Coffee, now a general
officer,
with
nearly
ANDREW JACKSON
66
thousand
Tennesseans, reached the With these, and neighborhood of Mobile. about a thousand of the regulars he had three
already, Jackson promptly marched on Pensacola. One of the forts, and the city it self,
he took
blown reach
the other fort, Barrancas, was by the British before he could
up
The
it.
week.
;
enterprise kept him but a all over before he received,
was
It
in reply to
own
his
letter
from the Secretary of
of
War
July, a
letter
forbidding
him
Once again he had taken the responsibility to do what he felt to
Pensacola.
attack
to be necessary.
By
this
ton was
time the government at Washing the
great danger of the Hurried orders were sent to the
alive
Southwest.
to
governors of the various States whose militia It must be the main reliance for defence. was suspected that New Orleans would be the first objective of the enemy, and a warn
ing came leader of British
to
a
had
the city from Jean Lafitte, the gang of smugglers, whom the tried
to
win
over.
But
the
warning was not properly heeded, and Jack-
TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA
67
was slow to make up his mind where the enemy would strike. He lingered son
at
himself
Mobile until November 22, and four days
later
Sir
Edward Pakenham, with a
army and a great
New
for
Orleans.
fleet, sailed
from Jamaica
was not
It
large
until
Decem
2 that a worn, thin man, tired and ill, whom nobody, failing to observe the look in ber
his eyes,
of
the
would have taken for the conqueror
Creeks,
city that
rode
into
the
curious
little
had been the French and then the
Spanish capital of Louisiana, and which was not yet half like an American town. The bulk of
population was still French Cre ole and African ; but among the Americans its
man who
knew something of Andrew Jackson, and who was to know a great deal more. The leader of there was at least one
the of
New all
Orleans
bar,
the citizens in
and the
already
most active
making ready
for the
enemy, was no other than that Edward Liv ingston, who, with Duane and Burr, had been friendly to the Tennessee Congressman
^e
eighteen years before at Philadelphia, invited the new commander to his house,
ANDREW JACKSON
68
where Mrs. the
town,
fighter
Livingston, a social leader in soon discovered that the Indian
knew
perfectly
well
himself in a drawing-room.
how
to
deport
IV
NEW OKLEANS
A
GLANCE
at the
map
will give the reader
some idea of the doubts that must have be set Jackson concerning the point at which
enemy would probably attack New Or The island on which the city stands leans. the
was
accessible
from the sea by
at least three
The British might approach general routes. by the Mississippi River, which flows by the
Lake Pontchar-
on the west, or over train, which stretches out city
over
Lake
Borgne,
to
from
the
the
north,
or
southeast.
inspected Fort St. Philip, sixty besides the fort, miles below, on the river there were, for river defences, the schooner
Jackson
first
;
His and the sloop Louisiana. next move was to Lake Pontchartrain, and in that quarter when news he was still Carolina
came that the enemy had chosen the third
ANDREW JACKSON
70
already on Lake Borgne. British found there six American gun
and
route
The
which were
boats,
after
was
a brief
but
all
gallant
was December 14, and yet
in
most
destroyed
New
or
struggle.
taken
That
Orleans was not
posture of defence. route from the lake to
any good natural
The the
immediate neighborhood of the city was up the Bayou Bienvenu, which led to the south ern
plain bounded on the the river and on the east by a dense
end of
west by
a level
At
cypress swamp. plain lay
but the
Orleans, and the distance was
seven miles; the plain was in Between places about a mile wide.
six
most
New
the northern end of the
or
head of
was not a
bayou and the city there or even a line of intrench-
the
fort
For this state of things Jackson has not escaped blame from military critics. But if illness or any other cause had robbed him of his usual energy, the news of the disaster on Lake Borgne was the signal for a change in him and in the situation. ments.
Coffee, with part of the Tennessee volunteers, hurried was up the river at Baton Rouge.
A
NEW ORLEANS
71
summons brought him
a hundred and twenty miles in two days, and on the 19th he was above the city with in camp a few miles
Two
days later came General Carroll and a brigade of Tennessee
eight
hundred men.
militia,
came sippi
two
thousand
them
a
or
six
;
the
hundred
city of
New
volunteers,
two incomplete
numbering rank and twenty-five
together
of
whom
regiments of about eight
regulars
hundred
A
Kentucky brigade of hundred men was on the way,
file.
but without arms.
Of
Carroll
one in ten had a musket. for these
Orleans
Jackson had
about a third were mulattoes. also
with
;
squadron of mounted Missis volunteers. Louisiana furnished a also
thousand militia five
strong
men, only To provide arms s
new
troops was a difficult matter, of the Kentuckians were still
and many unarmed when the final struggle came. The panic-stricken and disorderly, city became and Jackson promptly placed
it
under mar
tial law.
Such was the situation when, on the morn ing of December 23, the British advance
ANDREW JACKSON
72
numbering about seventeen hundred,
party,
in
conveyed
small
boats
Lake Borgne and up
over the
shallow
the Bienvenu, landed
below the city and seized the man sion of Major Villere, a Creole gentleman of
six miles
the neighborhood. Villere was captured, but escaped, and at half past one o clock Jack
son
knew
was
at hand.
in
New Orleans that the enemy By good luck, Major Latour,
a French engineer, and the best historian of the campaign, was among the first to view the invaders, and he gave the general a cor rect idea of their position and numbers. As in
other
all
taken
at
crises,
once.
"By
Jackson the
s
resolve
Eternal,"
was
he ex
they shall not sleep on our soil set his troops in motion for a night at
"
claimed,
He
"
!
tack.
Had
the
British
marched
on
to
New
Orleans without stopping, it seems probable that they would have taken it that evening.
But
upwards of two thousand Americans were between them and the city. Jackson was on the American right, near the at
river,
nightfall
with the
regulars
and the Louisiana
NEW ORLEANS with
Coffee, contingent. and the Mississippi
next
left,
New
guard
Teunesseans
his
was on the
horsemen,
Carroll s cypress swamp. the city militia were left to
the
and
brigade
73
on
Orleans
the
The
north.
had crept down the river opposite the enemy s position, and at half past seven Carolina
one of her guns gave the signal for attack.
What
is
followed, in the fog and darkness, The British were sur not clearly known.
prised
;
but British soldiers are proverbially
The hard to drive from their own position. Americans had the advantage of making the
attack;
but
they
nearly all raw confused and un
were
certain
Each side was of its own and the enemy
Coffee,
on the
troops.
left,
drove
the
s
position.
British
back
where
they were pro tected by an old levee, while the new levee on the bank shielded them from the Louisi
towards
ana
s
the
river,
On
fire.
were repulsed. British
"army
past
nine
lost
two
the
the
right,
Americans
the
Reinforcements reached the during attack
hundred
the
action.
ceased.
and
At
half
The enemy
sixty-seven
killed,
ANDREW JACKSON
74
wounded, and missing hundred and thirteen.
;
the Americans, two
The night
attack,
The however, strengthened the Americans. enemy, overrating Jackson s force, became too cautious to advance at once, but waited until the entire army should be landed. The
Americans gained time to build defenses. Jackson chose a line two miles above the battlefield,
marked
by a
shallow
ditch which crossed the est
point,
from
the
plain at swamp to
canal
its
or
narrow
the
river.
Behind the ditch he threw up a parapet. In some places cotton bales were used, for the soil was but three feet deep at that depth ;
one found water, as indeed one found water almost everywhere, in the foggy air, in the bayous, the river, the swamps, of that low land about
Jackson
s
New
Orleans.
arrangements
In a few days for defence were
Fifteen guns were disposed at in tervals along the line, some of them manned
completed.
by
Lafitte
force
and
his
buccaneers.
The whole
numbered about three thousand, and
the Kentuckians, though not all armed, were used as a reserve. On the river the Loui-
NEW ORLEANS
75
siana and the Carolina gave the
enemy much
trouble.
The
army, when completely dis seemed to justify the Duke of
British
embarked,
Wellington
confidence
s
that
could
it
any American army he ever heard thousand
trained
British
There
soldiers,
at
Villere
with from twenty-five
were
Seven
of.
seamen, thousand West Indian
and marines, and a blacks, were assembled tion,
rout
regiments
to
s
planta guns.
thirty
had
which
helped
Wellington to win Talavera, Salamanca, and Vitoria, and within a few short months some of
these
same regiments were
Waterloo in that thin red
and Napoleon
s
guard
to
line
could
stand
at
which Ney
never
break.
Their general, Pakenham, Wellington s bro ther-in-law, was a distinguished pupil of his illustrious
kinsman.
Could frontiersmen who
had never fought together before, who had never
seen the face of
a civilized foe, with
stand the conquerors of Napoleon branches of the same stubborn
?
But two race
were
The represented on that little watery plain. soldiers trained to serve the strongest will in
ANDREW JACKSON
76
World were
the Old
face
with the
face
to
and
rough
ready yeomanry embattled for by the one man of the New World
defence
whose
soul
had most
of iron in
Salamanca
against Tohopeka, individual alertness, the
against the little
Isle
against
wastes and wilds. difference.
the
It
it.
was
discipline
Briton
Briton
of
of
the
But there was one great
Wellington,
"the
Iron
Duke,"
was not there; "Old Hickory" was every where along the American lines. A grave and moderate fense
of
New
historian,
Orleans with the
Washington, finds unlike.
marks,
"
"
comparing the de
the
two
defence
situations
of
not
The
was
Pakenham
principal difference," he re that Jackson commanded."
concern was to get rid of the Carolina and the Louisiana. Heavy s
first
guns were with great labor hauled from the 27 the Carolina s fleet, and on December crew were forced to abandon her, and the Louisiana was with difficulty got out of but meanwhile Commodore Patter range son had mounted a battery across the river ;
which in a measure made up for the
ships.
NEW ORLEANS On
77
Pakenham advanced with
the 28th,
his
whole army, but retired, without making any assault, to await the result of an artillery This was fought on New Year s day, The British used at least twenty-
duel.
1815. four
and
some
throwing
guns,
hundred
the Americans, pounds of metal two hundred and guns, throwing
fifty
fifteen
three
;
On twenty-four pounds. defences were employed,
both sides cotton
novel
bales
by
the Americans, barrels of sugar by the Brit ish. The bales quickly caught fire, and from that tune were discarded as
as useless
if
but
made in Canada marksmen than American
The
they had been empty.
result of the action
surprising
the barrels proved
;
would have been utterly
for
the
discovery
already
that Americans were better British
regulars.
Three
every one damaged of the British batteries was silenced and abandoned. The American loss was thirtyfour killed and wounded the British, some
guns were
;
;
what heavier.
Pakenham Lambert
to
waited
a
week
for
come up with two of
General his
regi-
ANDREW JACKSON
78
and then made his supreme effort. His plan was to advance on both sides of
ments,
the river.
During the night of January 7, Colonel 1200 men, was Thornton, with thrown across to the left bank, where Gen eral David Morgan had 450 Louisiana mili tia,
reinforced
hundred
at
the
last
moment by
four
Both British divi sions were to attack before dawn. But the dawn came before Thornton was ready. He Kentuckians.
was, however, successful
programme.
Morgan
in
part of the was driven back, his his
guns taken, and the British on the west bank passed up the river a mile beyond Jackson s line.
Jackson never
forgave the
Kentuck
although military critics incline to think they did all that should have been expected. But on the east bank it was a different ians,
At
main body of the British rushed upon the American lines. story.
six
o clock
the
General Gibbs, with 2200, sought to pierce the defenses near the swamp. General
Keane
led
1200 along the
river bank.
Gen
Lambert, with the reserve, brought up the rear. The whole force engaged was over eral
NEW ORLEANS Gibbs
5000.
can
Gibbs
it.
wounded.
of
yards from the
his
himself
Pakenharn,
division fell,
dashing
melted
mortally
forward
to
was killed three hundred
rally the column,
left,
came under the Ameri
The head
fire.
before
first
79
Keane, on the British was wounded and carried from the field.
Nowhere did
lines.
the
enemy
pierce or break
the
A
brave major did indeed cross the ditch and lift his head above the line of defense.
but he lived only long enough to send back word that he died on the para In truth, Pakpet like an English soldier. breastworks;
enham
s
assault
was
a desperate
venture,
such as British commanders, relying on the valor of their men, have been too often led to
make.
from end
At to
eight o clock Jackson walked end of his works, and not a
British soldier was
anywhere to be seen in an attitude of offence. The smoke of the artillery, clearing, discovered
distant, in battlefield
wounded. than
five
the
enemy far full retreat to his camp, and the littered with piles of dead and I saw," said Jackson, more "
hundred
"
Britons
emerging from
ANDREW JACKSON
80
the
heaps of their dead comrades,
the plain, rising up, visible as the field
all
over
and still more distinctly became clearer, coming
forward and surrendering to our
Here was revenge, indeed,
soldiers."
for the suffer
ings of little Andy in the Waxhaws, for the sabre cut on his head, for his brothers, for his mother.
But
it
is
not
known
any low word of vengeance passed at the awful
dead
were
his
that lips
The British their wounded
sight before him.
seven
hundred,
twice as many, and five hundred were taken. In the American lines on that side of the river eight were killed
Such
a victory,
paralleled
in
and thirteen wounded.
cheaply bought, is not the warfare of civilized men. so
Lambert, succeeding Pakenham, recalled Thornton and gave up the important advan tage the British won on the western bank.
For ten days the armies lay as they were, and then the enemy withdrew as he had A few days later, Fort Bowyer, on come. Mobile Point, was taken, and then the fight ing ceased.
During the closing weeks of January, by
NEW ORLEANS
81
the slow methods of travel prevalent in those days, three messengers were hastening to
AVashington with tidings which the wearied President awaited with eagerness or fear according to the quarter from which they came. From Hartford, Conn., where the convention of New England malcontents had sat,
he was to learn what demands w ere made r
by Americans who chose a time of war to change and weaken, if not indeed to destroy, the constitution of their country.
From
the
American commissioners at Ghent he hoped To the against hope for news of a peace. Southwest he looked with dread, for few had dared to believe that New Orleans could be defended.
The three messages arrived
al
most together, and all three were to stick in men s minds for years to come, and to mould
men
s
thoughts about their
Ghent came
tidings of
From New
as
From
a peace, not, indeed, had gone to war to
we than we had a
glorious, or such
win, but better
country.
right to expect. of a victory so
Orleans, tidings splendid that it stirred the blood and bright ened the eyes of every true American, and
ANDREW JACKSON
82
made
it
hard to remember that the war had
The threaten
not been altogether glorious. ing
In
message from Hartford the
great
balance
of
lost
the
its terrors.
the
sections,
Northeast sank, the Southwest rose. When men recalled the war with shame, it was be
Hartford; when they spoke of with pride, as in time they came to do, cause
of
was because they saw, on the parapet of
it it
New
Orleans, looking out over heaps of British dead, the thin, tall figure of the horseman in
Lafayette Square.
True, the victory might the peace was made be
seem worthless, for fore the battle was fought; but the victor had won for his countrymen something dearer than anything set forth in treaties. He had won them back their good opinion of them selves.
to
In the prosperous years that were
follow,
Andrew Jackson,
the
man
of
the
Southwest, was to stand as no other man could for the American s faith in his country against the world. But the victorious
same Andrew
New
general was still the he did not leave Jackson ;
Orleans without exhibiting some of the
NEW ORLEANS characteristics
that
83
were so well known in
Relaxing none of his vigilance, he kept the city under martial law after the British had sailed, and even after the British Tennessee.
had sent him word of
admiral
Many New
the
peace.
people protested, and certain of them claimed exemption from the
work were out
Orleans
defense
of
on
the
All such he ordered
citizens of France.
the
of
city.
Mr.
ground that they
Louaillier, a
leading
published a protest, and Jackson Judge Hall, of the promptly arrested him. citizen,
United
States
District Court, issued
a writ
and Jack judge him
of habeas corpus for the prisoner,
son
promptly arrested the self, and did not release him until, early in March, official notice of the peace was re ceived. The judge fined the general a thou as
sand
dollars
for
contempt
of
court,
and
nearly thirty years afterwards the American Congress voted money enough to repay the
sum with the
interest.
Between the
news of peace, Jackson
order
whom
for
a
the
execution
court-martial
of
also six
battle
and
signed the militiamen
had found guilty of
ANDREW JACKSON
84
mutiny and desertion. stances which seemed
men was
to mercy,
and
There were circum
recommend
to
in after
years
these
the order
along with other things to prove that Jackson was a cruel and arbitrary com cited
mander.
However, the
War
Department gave him
only the mildest of reproofs for his treatment of
the civil authorities at
New
Orleans, and
when he returned to Tennessee it was to a welcome even more heartfelt and stirring than the one he got on his return from the In the autumn he was called Creek war. to
Washington
to consult with
his superiors
about putting the army on a peace footing, and on the journey and at the capital he was universally received
as the
The army was reduced
hero of the war.
thousand men, and distributed into a northern and a south to ten
ern department. The command of the north ern department was given to General Jacob
Brown
;
Jackson
got
the
southern
depart
ment. It
was
about
this
time
that
Governor
Alston, of South Carolina, got a letter from
NEW ORLEANS his father-in-law,
Aaron Burr,
85
of
New
York,
concerning the approaching presidential elec Burr thought Monroe, the leading tion.
and the man preferred by Presi dent Madison, too weak a man for the great office. He wanted a man of firmness and de candidate
and he added, that man is Andrew But as yet Jackson himself had Jackson." no such ambition. As late as 1821, in fact, he said, in reply to a suggestion that he "
cision,
I know what No, sir might be President I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way but I am not fit to be "
:
;
;
He
President."
in 1816,
Monroe wrote to him
cordially supported
and after
his election
and made a few suggestions about
One
ministration. to
appoint
Drayton,
a
these suggestions
Federalist,
Colonel
ad
was
William
War. Jackson de had he been in command in New
Secretary
clared that,
of
his
of
England, he would have hanged the leaders of the Hartford Convention but he was in ;
favor of recognizing the loyalty of such Fed eralists as had served the country faithfully
during the war.
That
letter to
Monroe was
ANDREW JACKSON
86
for
the
general by his neighbor and friend, William B. Lewis, as were hun dreds of others. The general himself was a "copied"
poor writer, and Major Lewis was a skilful man with a pen. He was also an exceedingly clever
politician,
and he showed
his clever
by keeping a second copy of the letter to Monroe for future use. In the course of the correspondence, Monroe let Jackson know ness
he himself might be Secretary of War he chose ; but Jackson was content with
that if
his
command.
V THE SEMINOLES AND THE POLITICIANS
FOR
years General Jackson was mainly occupied with the duties of a military officer in time of peace ; but he was also three
employed
dian tribes,
home open lands.
make treaties with several In and won another royal welcome
to
from to
the
Tennesseans
settlement
Even
in
large
peace,
by
areas
however,
throwing of Indian he
found
an opportunity to display his readiness to do the right thing in a way to make trou
Being several times annoyed by orders issued direct from the War Department to ble.
his
inferiors,
and
seeing
clearly
that
this
was not the proper procedure, he issued a general order forbidding his subordinates to obey any commands which did not reach
Calhotm, who became soon afterwards, conceded
them through him. Secretary of
War
ANDREW JACKSON
88
the justice of the general s position, but Jack son s course in the matter was certainly rather
General Winfield Scott
high-handed. cised
in private
it
conversation,
chief-maker brought
The
attention.
his
result
was
abusive
letters
a
which Scott, on
duel,
very properly
words
to Scott,
criti
and a mis to
some
Jackson fiery
and
and a challenge religious
s
to
grounds,
Jackson also car
declined.
on an angry correspondence with Gen
ried
Kentucky, who defended the Kentucky troops from the charge of cow eral Adair, of
ardice at
New
was
late
It
Orleans. in the year
1817 before Gen
Jackson was again called to active ser vice in the field. Once more the call was eral
from the southward, and
his old enemies, the
Red
Sticks, the English, and the Spaniards, were all in some measure responsible for it.
A
number
of
Red
Sticks had
taken refuge
with their kinsmen, the Seminoles, in Florida. Colonel Nichols and a small force of British
had
also
the war
nature
remained in Florida some time after
and had done things of a up the Indians there against
ended,
to stir
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS the
Americans
slaves,
the
across
89
border.
Negro escaping from American masters, had
fled to the
Spanish province in considerable numbers, and a bod}7 of them got possession of a fort on the Apalachicola River which
had been add
abandoned
to the
disorder of
the
To
British.
the
province, adventurers, some of
by
frequented
by
it
was
them
claiming to be there in order to lead a revo lution against Spain,
The Spanish authorities Pensacola were too weak to control such
mere at
some of them probably
freebooters.
a population, and Americans near the border were anxious to have their government inter
The negro
fere.
lessness,
down
was a centre of law and some American troops marched
the river,
shot blew
with
bombarded
up its hundred
three
the
Indian
fort
and by a lucky magazine and killed nearly negroes.
Troubles
arose
and Fowltown, an was taken and burned. A
Indians
village,
it,
also,
body of Indians took and Jackson was ordered
considerable
to
the
war-path,
to
the
scene.
Impatient
as ever with the Spaniards, he
.
ANDREW JACKSON
90
wrote to President Monroe nified to
J.
me
Ehea)
would
and
be
Let
be
it
sig
through any channel (say Mr.
that
the
desirable
in sixty days
Monroe was
"
:
it
at
ill
possession of Florida to the United States, will
the
be
accomplished."
time,
and for some
reason did not attend to the general s letter for a year. The President was trying to get Florida peaceably, by purchase, and not by
Jackson, however, got the idea conquest. that his suggestion was approved, and acted accordingly.
Eaising troops in Tennessee on his own authority, he marched rapidly to the scene of
and
Of
border into Florida, crushed the Seminoles.
trouble, crossed the
in
a few weeks
fighting, in
fact,
what there was
fell
there
was very
almost
entirely
little
to
;
the
and not a single American soldier was killed. But Jackson s actions in the campaign brought on the bitterest friendly Indians,
controversies
four
tured
of
his
men were put
career.
to
By
his
order
and he cap claiming that some
death,
Pensacola again, Indians had taken refuge
there.
Two
of
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS
91
men were Creek Red Sticks. The other two were white men and British sub One was Alexander Arbuthnot, an jects. old man of seventy, a trader among the In dians, and, so far as is known, a man of good character. He was taken prisoner, how the four
and
supposed a letter he wrote to his son, telling him to take their merchandise to a place of safety, warned some Indians of ever,
it
is
The other British sub ject was an Englishman named Robert Ama lieutenant in the brister, who had been Jackson
British
New
any
He
was nephew to the gov Providence, one of the British
and
Indies,
Florida for
approach.
army.
ernor of
AVest
s
rather clearly
in
seems
have
to
search of
been
in
adventure than
ascertainable
purpose.
A
court-martial found Arbuthnot guilty of in citing the Creek Indians to rise against the
United
States,
and of
Ambrister was found against
the
sentenced to
United be shot
tion, the court
stripes
aiding the enemy. guilty of levying war
States. ;
He was
then, on
first
reconsidera
changed the sentence to fifty and hard labor for a year. Jackson
y
ANDREW JACKSON
92
firmly believed that both were British emissa ries, sent to Florida to stir up the Indians.
He
disapproved the change of Ambrister s sentence, and ordered him to be shot and
Arbuthnot
to be hanged.
and energetic measures, whe ther justifiable or not, put an end to the disorder on the border, and Jackson was
Such
again
fierce
free
country
to
return
home a
victor.
The
disposed to approve what he but the President and Cabinet
was
had done, saw that grave international questions would be raised for Jackson had invaded the soil of a country at peace with the United States, taken possession of its forts, and put to ;
death
citizens
peace
with
another
of
United
the
country
States.
also
John
at
C.
Calhoun, of South Carolina, the Secretary of War, was in favor of censuring the general for
his
conduct
but John
;
Quincy Adams,
the
Secretary of State, thought his acts necessary under the circum stances, and declared himself ready to de of
Massachusetts,
fend them.
In the end he did defend them
so well that neither Spain nor
Great Britain
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS made
dent and
his Cabinet followed
vice instead of
about
the
reason
to
Presi
Adams
s
ad
and Calhoun him him superior, wrote to
Calhoun
Jackson
as
self,
The
serious trouble over them.
93
s
s,
in
a
friendly way. Jackson naturally thought that Calhoun had been his friend in the Cabinet, and had no
campaign
that
suspect
it
was Adams who
defended, and Calhoun who wished to cen He did not learn the truth for sure him.
many is
no
years. telling
tory of been.
the
Had how next
he known
it
different the
twenty years
For henceforth Jackson was
sooner, there political
might have to be a great
figure not in warfare but in politics. military career was practically ended.
kept
his
from
this
He
commission time
he
had not, as a
until
fought
soldier,
his
July,
1821,
no more
His
He but
battles.
given such evidence
military genius as to set his name along side those of the great captains of history, but he had shown himself a strong and suc
of
cessful leader of
irregular
men
;
in his masterful, often
and violent way, he had done
his
ANDREW JACKSON
9i
Were
service.
country good
history merely a soldier
s,
his
place
in
would be a safe
it
But his actions one, though not the highest. in the field soon gave him the leading part on a different
One day
stage.
in
January,
1819, he rode up to the house of his neigh bor, Major Lewis, who had just bought a
new
overcoat,
another
made he
to get himself
the general wanted the one already
;
wear on a long journey.
to
"
said,
to
ington
and asked him
there
ruin
is
a combination
me.
"
Major,"
in
Wash
I start to Washington
to-morrow."
The
chief of those who, as Jackson firmly
were combined
believed,
the
man who
him, was could with best reason be com to
ruin
pared to the hero of New Orleans for the place he had in the affections of the West ern people and
new
as
American
;
quarter
Britain.
If
Jackson was
the
war,
if it
Henry Clay was its was Jackson who sent from one
the
news
of
hero
orator
representative of the born of the second
spirit,
war with Great the
the
of
a
glorious
was Clay who, with Adams and
victory,
it
Gallatin,
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS had
secured
95
the
Leaving Ghent, peace. lingering in Paris when he heard
Clay was the news of
New
Orleans.
I can go to tification." But the
claimed,
"
"
Now,"
he ex
England without mor great orator was not
sympathy with Monroe s administration. His enemies declared he was in opposition
in
because he was not asked to be Secretary of State, and because he feared that Adams,
who had
become President four years later. However that may have been, it was Clay who led the attack on the
about
administration
Florida. "
the place, would
the
his
Protesting
illustrious
commanded
the
campaign in
deep
who
condemned
the
"
military
he
there,
yet
for
respect chieftain
hanging of the two Red Sticks, the execu tion of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, the tak ing of Pensacola.
From
the
moment
speech he was Clay
s
Jackson
read
that
enemy, and a warfare
began that lasted twenty-five years. Every man, in fact, who in the course of the long debate that followed condemned the acts of General
Jackson
in
Florida
was
written
ANDREW JACKSON
96
down an enemy on ory.
He
the
remained
in
tablets of
his
mem
Washington
until
House had voted down every resolution unfavorable to his course, and he had thus won his first victory over Clay. Then he set forth on a northern journey which showed him the immense popularity he had in places like New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and gave him an opportunity to the
increase
it
in public.
by the
He
fine
returned
appearance he made to
find that a
Sen
had reported unfavorably on his conduct, but the Senate never acted on the report, and on his journey homeward ate committee
the people gave him every reason to believe that the great majority of his countrymen As approved the votes of the lower house.
complete his called once more to
if
to
triumph, he was soon Florida ; and this time
he entered Pensacola, not as a soldier invad ing a foreign province, but as the chief magistrate
of
an
American
territory.
In
February, 1821, after so many years of ne gotiation, Florida was bought by the United President Monroe appointed JackStates. V,
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS
97
and commissioner to receive the province, and he, bidding farewell to the army, entered again upon the duties of son
a
governor
civil office.
Even
in
his farewell
to
his troops,
Jack
son took occasion to attack a policy recently favored by his superior, General Jacob
Brown,
and
who
any one
knew
Jackson
have guessed that the holding of a office would never keep him from vio
might civil
lent courses, particularly in
held
the
office
only
a few
He
Pensacola.
months,
he
for
who was with him, tells in one of her letters how pale and solemn he was when he rode into Pensacola for the third time, and how ill he was
in
was while he
was
October, but made another
before
The
His
wretched health.
there.
wife,
He
resigned
resigned he had dispute with Spain.
he
cause of
retiring Spanish governor, Callava,
accused of attempting
in
was
to
carry away papers which were necessary to establish the pro The perty rights of a quadroon family. correspondence on the subject led to a series of misunderstandings,
and General Jackson
ANDREW JACKSON
98
was
soon
that villainy was afoot. the dispute was that the
convinced
The upshot of American governor ernor
in
judge of
jail
the
Spanish gov and when the United States
;
West
put
Florida, a
named Fromentin,
curious
mend
tried to
character
the matter
with a writ of habeas corpus, he fared little better than Judge Hall of New Orleans had fared before him.
Mr.
Parton
comical
this
s
laborious
affair
son
s
chivalrous
him
enables
that the estate over which
was of no value
investigation
show
the trouble arose
whatever,
impulse
to
of
to
and that Jack defend a fam
wronged led him into a As very arbitrary and indefensible action. usual, his motives were good, but his tem ily
he
per
was not improved by
the
fact
thought
that
Callava,
his
illness
who seems
to
or
by
have
been a worthy gentleman, was a Spaniard, and had been governor of Florida. Jackson
had a rooted dislike of Spanish governors, and doubtless congratulated himself and the country that there would be no more of them in Florida, when, for the last time, he
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS Pensacola
from
northward
turned
The Hermitage and
the
to
which
rest
99
seek
his dis
eased body sorely needed.
The Hermitage was by place
to
in, for
rest
it
time a good grown to be a
this
had
Southern plantation home, quite unlike the bare homes which sheltered the first settlers of
that
neighborhood,
and
it
had
its
full
charm that belonged to that It was the seat of an old Southern life. The fame of its mas abundant hospitality. ter drew thither interesting men from a dis His benevolence, and the homely tance. share
of
the
wife, made charity of his many of the neighborhood
it
a
resort
for
whom
they two people fond of
had befriended, for young the simple amusements of those days, and of the Gospel, whom for ministers Mrs. Jackson, an extremely pious woman, liked For his wife s especially to have about her. sake, the
general
and
estate,
respect
the
built a tiny church
always religion
treated
with
which he
on the
profound
himself
had
not professed, but which he honored because
Mrs.
Jackson
was
a
Christian.
Indeed,
ANDREW JACKSON
100
there
nothing in the honorable than his is
more
man
whole
s
perfect
life
loyalty to
She was a simple, uncultivated, kindhearted frontier woman, no longer attrac tive in person, and a great contrast to the her.
courtly figure
by her
side
when
she and the
It is certainly general were in company. true that the two used to smoke their reed
pipes together before the fire after dinner, and that custom, to one ignorant of Ameri
would stamp them as persons of the lowest manners. Yet it is also true that Aunt Rachel," as Mrs. Jack can
in the Southwest,
life
"
son was commonly called by younger people of the neighborhood, was loved and honored
by
all
who knew
her.
The general had not
merely fine manners, but that which is finer far than the finest manners he had kindness :
for his slaves, hospitality for strangers, tleness
with
women and
children.
The Hermitage in noble nature was drawn to was
ette
way
at
quite
impossible
to
gen
Lafay 1825, and his Jackson in a
understand
if
he
was nothing more than the vindictive duel ist,
the headstrong
brawler, the crusher out
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS of Indians, the
and Span
Britons
of
which we know that he was.
iards,
found
ette
hater
at
The Hermitage
101
Lafay
the
pistols
which he himself had given to Washington and which, with many swords and other tokens of the public esteem, had come to the hero of New Orleans. The friend of Wash declared
ington
that
the
had
pistols
come
worthy hands, notwithstanding that his host was equally ready to display another That is the pistol weapon with the remark, with which I killed Mr. Dickinson." to
"
It
seems clear that Jackson honestly meant
spend the rest of his days at the Hermit His friend Eaton, a Senator from age. to
Tennessee, had already written his to
New
Orleans,
have
been
name
of
and
content,
probably
so
far
as
life
he
down would
his
public career was concerned, to let finis follow the his
greatest
victory.
But
Eaton
and Major Lewis, and other friends, and the vast public which his deeds had Within a stirred, would not let him alone.
himself,
year of his retirement, a group of his friends
were working shrewdly to make him Presi-
ANDREW JACKSON
102
dent of the United States.
Williams,
In 1823, John
who was an enemy
to
Jackson,
came before the Tennessee legislature election to the United States Senate. son
s
friends were determined
to
for re
beat
Jack him,
and found they could do it in only one way. In that, as They elected Jackson himself.
work that was done for him, Major Lewis was the leading man. Before the time came to choose a successor to President Monroe in 1824, Tennessee had declared for her foremost citizen, and in all the clever political
Pennsylvania, to the surprise of the country, soon followed the lead. The sceptre was pass from the Virginian line, and from all the great sections of the Union distinguished statesmen stepped forward to
about to
grasp
From Georgia came William H.
it.
Crawford, a practiced politician
;
from South
John C. Calhoun, the subtlest of from Kentucky, Henry Clay, the reasoners orator; from Massachusetts, John Quincy Carolina,
;
Adams, the
best drained of
public servants.
Only Tennessee offered a soldier. It was twenty-six years from the end
of
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS Jackson second
s
in
Congress
the
Senate.
service
first
appearance
in
103
to
his
Again
he showed himself unfit to shine as a legis lator, but in spite of that he was now clearly the most marked
None
figure in the
upper house. were Senators. Clay was
of his rivals
Adams, Craw Speaker of the House and Calhoun were in the Cabinet. ford, the
;
Jackson probably did not occupy more than ten minutes of the Senate s time during the whole session, but his fame and his can
made
didacy internal
votes
his
improvements
on
the
and
tariff
data
important
to
The
country was already en tered upon the second period of its history, in which there was to be no French party politicians.
and
no
should
English choose
party;
his
position on such
party
in
which
a
voter
on account of
questions
as
the
tariff,
its
in
improvements, and the bank, or on account of the general view of the Constitu ternal
But as yet no clear division into such parties had come about. The old Federalist party was no longer in the field, and no other had arisen to take its tion
which
it
favored.
ANDREW JACKSON
104
It
place.
was a time of personal
Who
The first question was, Monroe ? and the next
question,
succeed the successor of
Monroe
to
is
politics.
succeed
Who
is
to
?
Jackson found some firm friends awaiting him in Washington, and he soon added to
number
their
by
becoming
reconciled
to
some old enemies. Among the old friends was Livingston, now Congressman from Lou isiana. One of the old enemies was the Sen ator from Missouri, whose chair was next his
own
rising
;
for
man
Benton.
in
the
Senator from Missouri, a
Washington, was Thomas H.
According
Jackson made the
Ben ton
to
s
account,
and they were soon on friendly terms, though Benton continued to support Clay, whose niece he had married. General Winfield Scott made an overture, and Jackson cordially responded. first
advance,
Even with Henry Clay he was induced by mutual
friends
courteous
to
stand
on
a
footing of there never
though was any genuine friendship between them. Against Crawford, the Georgian candidate, and at first the leading candidate of all, he friendliness,
SEHItfOLES
AND POLITICIANS
105
Craw had a grudge that dated from 1815. ford was Secretary of War at that time, and, contrary to Jackson s advice, had restored the
to
Cherokees certain lands which Jack
son had got
from the Creeks by the treaty of Fort Jackson, but which the Cherokees
When
claimed. against
Monroe
Crawford in
1816,
offered
himself
Jackson was ar
and now, when it dently for the Virginian was apparent that the caucus of Republican ;
Senators and Representatives would probably
nominate Crawford, Jackson the friends
of
other
friends joined candidates in opposing s
the caucus altogether, so that in the end only sixty-six persons attended it, and its action
was deprived of the weight it had formerly Before the had in presidential contests. election, Crawford was stricken with paraly sis,
and
this greatly
weakened
his chances.
Both Calhoun and Adams were on friendly terms with Jackson.
Jackson
still
supposed
that Calhouu had defended the Florida
cam
His good feeling paign in the Cabinet. toward the South Carolinian was doubtless strengthened when Calhoun, who had relied
ANDREW JACKSON
106
on the support of Pennsylvania, gracefully yielded to Jackson s superior popularity in that quarter, and withdrew from the contest. It was then generally agreed that he should
be
and
Vice-President,
probably
General
Jackson, like many others, was willing that he should restore the old order of things according to which the Vice- President, in stead of the Secretary of State, stood in line of succession to the presidency. Adams was Secretary of State,
and
as such
he had rendered Jackson important services
by defending
his actions in Florida.
Adams,
in diplomacy, believed in standing up for his own country quite as resolutely as the fron tier general did in war. Nor were they far
apart
on
the
ments,
the
Adams
s
feeling
tariff
domestic
diary for
for
Mrs.
and
internal
questions
this
Jackson.
of
improve the
day.
period shows a good In honor of the gen
Adams gave
a great ball January 8, 1824, the anniversary of New Orleans. The election turned, as so many others
eral,
have turned, on the vote of New York, which Martin Van Buren, an astute politician, was
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS trying
Crawford.
to carry for
He
107
not
did
and there was no choice by the peo Jackson led with ninety-nine votes in electoral college Adams had eighty-
succeed, ple.
the
;
Crawford forty-one, Clay thirty-seven. In some States the electors were still chosen
four,
by the
Outside of those States
legislature.
Jackson had
fifty
thousand more votes than
Adams, and Adams s vote was nearly equal to Crawford s and Clay s combined. For Yice-President, Calhoun had a large ma jority.
Under
the
Constitution,
the
House
of
Representatives had now to choose a Presi dent from the three candidates. leading
Clay was
Speaker, and had great influence over the House, but his own name had to be
Beaten himself, he had the power make any one of his three rivals President
dropped. to
of the United States.
was a trying situation for him and for the three citizens whose fate he seemed to It
hold
in
his
hands.
that Clay could
Adams had
not
never
Crawford
was
so
seriously consider
liked
Clay, though
ill
him.
they
ANDREW JACKSON
108
generally agreed about public questions, and the ardent Kentuckian could never have
New England
found the cold manners of the
But from the
statesman attractive. preferred
mere
Adams
to
Jackson,
he
first
thinking
a
"
unfit military chieftain On the 9th of February,
for
"
fice.
the
of
Adams was
That evening he and Jackson met
elected.
at a presidential reception.
Of
the two, the
Westerner bore himself
defeated
more graciously than the successful candidate from
New
far
England.
Up
to
this
no
unseemly conduct could be charged against any one of the four time,
But the human nature
rivals.
of these
could not bear to the end the strain of
men such
a rivalry. For many years the jealousy and hatred and suspicion it gave birth to were to blacken American politics. Jackson was guilty
Adams
of ;
a
grave
injustice
and they, by a
to
Clay
political blunder,
livered themselves into his hands.
and de
Jackson
them with u bargain and corruption." Adams, by appointing Clay Secretary of State, and Clay, by accepting and
his friends charged
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS the
office,
gave
the
only evi had to offer of the truth of
their
dence they ever
enemies
109
Every other semblance of a proof was shown to be worthless, and the characters of the two men have convinced all candid historians that the charge was the
charge.
But there was no way to prove that the charge was false. Jackson believed it, and from this time he made war on Clay and Adams. He believed he had a wrong to false.
*
right,
to
a combination
overthrow,
purify
him
and
scoundrelly enemies
government to The election had shown
corrupted
save.
to be the
dates,
now
and
a
of
most popular of
his friends, of
all
the candi
whom Benton was
the foremost, contended that the
House
ought to have chosen him in obedience to the Until he should be elected, people s will. he and his followers seemed to
feel that the
people were hoodwinked by the politicians. Hitherto, since his second entrance into public life, he had borne himself as became a soldier whose battles were already fought. Webster had written of him General "
:
Jackson
s
manners
are
more
presidential
ANDREW JACKSON
110
than
those
He is any other candidate. and reserved." But now he
of
mild,
grave,
more the Jackson of the tavern Politics had brawl, of the Dickinson duel. come to be a fight, and his friends had no more need to urge him on. He resigned his place in the Senate, and was at once, for the second time, nominated for President by the was once
Tennessee
legislature.
With
untiring
in
dustry and great political shrewdness, Lewis,
Eaton, Benton, Livingston, and others of his
work to get him elected. The campaign of 1824 was no sooner ended than the campaign of 1828 was begun. It was an important campaign because it went far to divide the old Republican party, to which all the candidates of 1824 had be friends set to
longed, into battle
for
partly
but
it
was
the
next
division
was
supremacy throughout a
and
policies,
also a matter, of organization.
Adams principles and measures, disposed to revive those policies which
As was
a
two parties which were to
The century. matter of principles
of
quarter
the
to
the old Federalist party had adopted in the
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS
111
He had left that party power. in 1808, not because he had given up its early principles, but because he believed days of
its
that
leaders,
its
particularly
the to
to
the
where opposition to
point
passes into disloyalty the Republican party
party in power In the country.
he always acted with those
Henry
New Eng
opposition to Jefferson,
land, in their bitter
had gone
in
favored
men who,
like
a
strong government at Washington and looked with distrust on any attempt of a State to set up its own Clay,
powers of the United As President, he wished the gov States. ernment to take vigorous measures for de
powers
against
the
by internal protecting American in
fense, for developing the country
improvements, for dustries
by heavy duties on goods imported
He
.from other countries.
public lands prices they
should
be
thought
sold
at
the
that the
highest
would bring, and the money used
by the general government to promote the He had no doubt as to the public welfare. government s power to maintain a national bank, and thought that was the very best
way
to
manage the
finances.
ANDREW JACKSON
112
Jackson
himself
was
not
a
free-trader,
and had committed himself to a proper but during the tariff on protection lines "
"
;
campaign he a
man
tariff
made
was than
to
appear
less
He had
Adams.
of
also
and other internal improvements, but he had not com voted for
mitted
He
himself
roads
national
certain
sweepingly
to
that
policy.
doubted the
tional
bank.
constitutionality of a As to the public lands,
na he
favored
a liberal policy, with the object of developing the western country by attract ing settlers rather than raising money to be
On the general spent by the government. question of the powers of the government he stood for a stricter construction of stitution
of
the
Con
and greater respect for the rights
the States than
Adams
believed
in.
So,
notwithstanding Jackson s tariff views, the mass of the people held him a better repre sentative of Jeffersonian
Democracy than
his
rival.
But a party merely a one has
list
said,
an organization, and not It is, as some of principles. is
a
crowd,
and not
merely a
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS
113
managers so organized his in that supporters that they became a party sense much more clearly than in the sense Committees of holding the same views. Jackson
creed.
were formed
all
s
country somewhat committees of corre
over the the
on the order of
News spondence of Revolutionary times. papers were set up to attack the adminis tration and hold the Jackson men together. Everywhere Jackson was represented as the candidate
of
politicians.
the
In
plain
all
people
against
the
such work Major Lewis
and shrewd, and before the end of the campaign, from another quarter of the union, Jackson won a recruit who was
was
active
already a past master in
Martin Van
politics.
in
the
political
school
the lore of party Buren was a pupil all
of
Aaron Burr, and
was recognized as the cleverest a State in which the sort of is
concerned with
securing
politician of politics
that
elections rather
had grown into New York was then
than fighting for principles a
science
and an
art.
and the support of Van Buren was of the utmost value.
thought
a
doubtful
State,
ANDREW JACKSON
114
It is
probable that so far
as
Jackson differed on
and
policy, a
questions majority of the
But
with Jackson.
it
is
Adams and of
principle
people were also clear that the
campaign was fought out as a sort of per sonal contest between the Southwestern sol
and the two statesmen whom he accused of bargain and corruption. It was a cam dier
paign of bitter personal abuse on both
Adams, perhaps the most tious
cused
statesman
since
rigidly
sides.
conscien
Washington, was ac
of extravagance, of dishonesty, riches, of debt, of betraying his old friends, of
the Federalists, of trying to bring Federalists
back into power.
Against Jackson his ene
mies brought up his many fights and duels, his treatment of Judge Hall and Judge Fromentin, the execution of Woods and the six militiamen, of the two Indians, of Arbuthnot
and Ambrister.
Handbills were distributed, with a coffin bearing the
each
decorated
name
of one of his victims.
was attacked. was blazoned
The scandal
His private of
life
his marriage
newspapers and pamphlets. Even the unknown grave of his mother was
not spared.
in
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS
115
So it became largely a question of the two men. and which the people liked best. Adams, coldly virtuous, woidd not turn his finger to
make
himself better liked
even
;
if
he had
attempted the arts of popularity, he was, of all the eminent men of our history, the least endowed with charm of manner,
He
speech, and bearing.
or
him,
man
any
appoint
to
sternly refused to office for supporting
to
any man out of
turn
office
for
He
could not be winning or Ezekiel, the gracious on public occasions. shrewd old brother of Daniel Webster, wrote
opposing him.
to
him
after
that
the election
from a supported Adams duty, and not from any liking
England men cold sense of of
the
New
even in
man."
"
It took a
New England
science to hold a follower in line for the
England candidate. west
won many a he
made
consent.
bitter
than
New
of the South
vote where the voter
science did but half
went,
The man
con
s
con
Wherever he
enemies
or
devoted
and luke warm admirers. Adams was an honest Old man, but nobody had ever called him
friends,
rather
cold
critics
"
ANDREW JACKSON
116
Hickory."
could
had
He
was an ardent
to
many
point
to
written,
a
labor
but
;
state
papers
he
weights and cost him four years of
on
report
measures which had patient
wise
and
patriot,
he
could
like
not,
his
journey down the Mississippi and cele brate the anniversary of a great victory in rival,
the city he had saved. ably defend his course
but what was
on shouting,
Of
all
"
the
New England
it all
worth
Hurrah sections
if
the people kept
for Jackson
of
the
"
?
country only
Adams a solid support. West and South and car
gave
Jackson swept the ried
His followers might on public questions,
the great
States
of
and
Pennsylvania
New York.
In Tennessee, nineteen men out of twenty voted for him. There is a story of a traveller who reached a Tennessee town the next day and found the whole male popu lation pursuing with tar and feathers two reckless citizens general."
who had voted
In the electoral
"
against
college
the
he had
one hundred and seventy-eight votes to Ad ams s was Calhoun eighty-three. again chosen Vice-President.
SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS
117
The poor boy had won his way to the White House, but it was a worn old man, bowed down with a heavy sorrow, who jour neyed across the mountains to take the great prize.
The
cruel
campaign
scandal
about
had aggravated a heart trouble She from which his wife had long suffered. died in December, and his grief was appal his marriage
ling to those who gathered at The Hermitage to do honor to Aunt Kachel." It was not "
in Jackson
have been forget,
in
helped to
s
nature, as indeed
in his
the nature grief,
cause
it.
the
of
it
would not
many men,
enemies
His old
age,
who like
to
had his
youth, was to be cursed with hatred and the thought of revenge.
VI THE WHITE HOUSE
MARCH President
4,
1829,
United
the
of
Andrew Jackson became
crowd of strange-looking men
him
inaugurated.
"They
wrote
A
States.
went
really
that the Webster, has been rescued from some great think,"
Whoever certainly
was,
he
great to
seem
see to
"
country danger."
may have thought so, Jackson held that opinion. As his wont else
saw
the
danger
and
the
villainy
which he thought himself commissioned to and that destroy in the person of a man ;
man was Henry was
Clay.
Martin Van Buren
to succeed
Clay as Secretary of State in the new Cabinet, but he did not reach Wash
Jack ington until after the 4th of March. son accordingly sent his friend, Colonel Ham ilton, of
New
York, to the State Department,
ordering him to take charge there the instant
THE WHITE HOUSE
119
he should hear the gun which was to announce that the new President had taken the oath of office.
Jackson and Clay were, in fact, the lead ers of the two parties into which the old Republican party was now divided. rise
to
men and
public
come
meant that a new
leadership
to
the
new
a
front;
it
Their set
set of questions
of
had
meant a more thor
oughgoing experiment of democracy than had yet been tried in America. Adams s properly considered to have been the last of one series and Jackson s the administration
first
of
is
another.
Under
dents, national affairs
the
earlier
Presi
were committed mainly
few trained statesmen, the people simply approving or disapproving the men and the
to a
measures brought themselves
them, but not of putting forward candidates for
the
offices
any wise initiating The rule of the people was thus a
higher
policies.
before
or in
passive sort of rule, a rule with the wide prevalence frage, tions,
But by consent. of manhood suf
and the prominence of domestic ques of questions concerning the business
ANDREW JACKSON
120
and
and Republic, with the disappearance of the profound ques tions concerning the organization of the gov the
ernment
daily
the
of
life
and the nature
of
government in general, the people began to assert them selves. Under Jackson and his successors, they made themselves
more and more at their opinions and sentiments, Washington their likes and dislikes, their whims and felt
;
prejudices,
ernment.
were
into
their
gov Henceforth, public men were to
be powerful not
projected
so
much
in
proportion
to
knowledge of statecraft as in propor tion to their popularity. They must repre
their
sent
the
selves
popular
and
will,
commend them
or
their policies
to
popular favor.
public men of the old order, like Adams, might be wise and faithful, but they lacked
The
Clay
s
and
standing the two
of
Jackson the
new
s
sympathetic
common
leaders
people.
Jackson
had
under
And
of
by far the stronger hold on the popular mind and The people had sent him to Wash heart. ington because he was of them and like Both he them, and because they liked him.
THE WHITE HOUSE
121
and they felt that he was their President, and he held himself responsible to them only. It
seemed,
too,
that
with the new ques there was coming a
and the new men new sort of politics. Jackson meant tions
the
people
faithfully,
but he
to serve
entered
upon
the duties of his great office in the spirit of The sort of politics a victorious general.
most in accord with
his feeling
was the
sort
which prevailed in New York and I Jackson once declared, Pennsylvania.
of
politics
"
am
not
a politician, but
if
I were, I should
New York politician." leading New York politician, be a
Before long, a Senator Marcy,
expressed the sentiment of his fellows when he said, To the victors belong the spoils." That was a sentiment which a soldier Pre "
sident
could
understand.
In that
letter to
Monroe which Major Lewis wrote for him twelve years before, and which won him votes, he
had
urged
that
partisan
considerations
should not control appointments but before he had been President a year he removed ;
more men from
office
than
all
his
predeces-
ANDREW JACKSON
122
sors
had removed
government.
since the beginning of the
When
he
left
Washington, the
and appointing men for reasons was so firmly established
practice of removing political
that
work
the patient
of
reform has not to
this
That, to many histo day destroyed it. the gravest fault of Jackson s rians, was
^ administration.
It was,
York methods
applied
and
however, merely to
national
New
politics,
was a perfectly natural outcome of Jackson s conviction that the people had sent him there to drive out the men who had it
the government. fact, unless we understand
control of
In
President
Jackson himself, we cannot possibly under for President Jack stand his administration ;
though he was now somewhat subdued in manner, and was not By the Eternal quite so often on his lips, was still Jackson son,
"
"
of
the
sword
;
duelling
and Jackson of
pistol
and he was
whom Benton saw
also
child between his knees.
divided
for
him
into
The party opposed
to
the
Jackson
lamb
and the
still
with the All
friends
the
men were
still
and enemies.
him came soon
to call
THE WHITE HOUSE
123
Party, and later the Whig Party, while his own follow ers were called Democratic Republicans, or
National
the
itself
But
Democrats.
Republican
to
Jackson the
National
Republicans were the friends of Henry Clay, as the Democrats were his own friends. So, too,
of
the
In
with.
great
every
questions he had to deal case he was fighting not
merely a policy or an institution but a man. For a time, however, his arch-enemy, Clay, Until the au disappeared from the scene.
tumn
of 1831, he
Jackson
tucky.
and was
was
in retirement in
had
the
field
to
himself,
occupied with his rather than his enemies.
Van
at
Ken
first
friends
Buren, as Secretary of State, was the
The
head of the new Cabinet. bers were not
men
other
mem
of great distinction.
had, however, one thing in way or another, they had
common: all
They in
opposed
one
Mr.
Half On other points they differed. Clay. of them were friends of Calhoun, and wished to see
him President
after
Jackson.
were also divided into married widower, Mr.
Van Buren
They
men and
a
being the widower.
ANDREW JACKSON
124
That, as
turned out, was
things
a very im
portant division indeed. Jackson did not treat his Cabinet as other
had
Presidents v
idea
soldier s
think
it
treated
of
He had
theirs.
a
organization,
and
did
consult
the
Cabinet
to
necessary
not
members about all the measures he planned. He treated them somewhat as a general though with sev eral of them, especially Van Buren and Ea ton, his relations were very cordial and inti mate. When he wished advice, however, he treats his
inferior
was more apt
officers,
to seek
whom
it
of
his friend,
Major
he had
an
persuaded to accept appointment, and who lived with him at
the
White
Lewis,
had come
to
Adams men
or
House,
of
Isaac
New
who
fighting the Hampshire, or of Amos after
Washington in
Hill,
who had dared
Clay in Kentucky, or of General Duff Green, editor The Telegraph," the Jackson organ. of Kendall,
to
oppose
"
These men, dent,
net
"
;
came and
personal
friends
to be called at
least
shrewd enough to
the
three justify
"
of
of
the
Presi
Kitchen Cabi the
four were
any President in
THE WHITE HOUSE consulting
New England men by
both all
the industry
Lewis
Major was a
"
not
did
cleverness
political
little
birth,
and had
and sharpness of mind pro
characteristic
verbially
were
Kendall
and
Hill
them.
125
Yankees.
of
surpass
Even
Kendall in
and far-sightedness
whiffet
of
a
man,"
but
;
he
before
long the opposition learned to see his hand in every event of political importance any If a Democratic con where in the country. vention
in
Maine framed a
resolution, or
a
newspaper in New Orleans changed its policy, men were ready to declare that it was Ken
who
Historians are pulled the wire. fond of saying that it was such men as Ken dall
and Lewis who really ruled the country and it is true while Jackson was President dall
;
that
by
skilful
suggestions,
by playing upon
and dislikes, much could be done But it is equally true that when with him. he was once resolved on any course his friends could no more stop him than his enemies
his
likes
could.
won "
I
A
clerk
his favor
take
the
in
the
State
by a happy use responsibility,"
Department
the phrase, and from that of
ANDREW JACKSON
126
time was safe even against the displeasure of member of Con Secretary Van Buren.
A
gress began a successful intrigue for office by begging for his father the pipe which the President was smoking, ashes and all.
A
clerk in the
War
Department attracted
his
by challenging a man to a duel, started himself on a career that ended
attention
and
so
in the Senate.
Secretary
Van Buren
called
on Peggy Eaton and supplanted Calhoun as the heir apparent to the presidency. Jack son in good humor was the easiest of victims to an artful intriguer ; but, unlike the weak
whom
scheming ministers have shaped to their purposes, he could not be stopped kings
when once he was
started.
was Peggy Eaton who made a division between the married men and the widower It
She was the wife of Sena tor Eaton, who was now Secretary of War, and the widow of a naval officer named Timberlake. Her father was a tavernof the Cabinet.
keeper
named
and Eaton they were
had
O
Neill,
lived
Senators,
and
at
both
his
and Mrs.
Jackson
tavern
O
when
Neill
had
THE WHITE HOUSE place
in
O
The
been kind to Mrs. Jackson.
had no
127
Washington
Neills
and
society,
there were ugly stories about the conduct of Mrs. Timberlake with Senator Eaton before
the death of Timberlake, at sea.
Washington President
stories.
lieve them,
pion.
who
killed himself
society believed
Jackson
refused
zeal
in
her
cause
to
be
cham knew no
and became Mrs. Eaton
His
these
s
bounds, and he wished his secretaries and their wives to help him. But the Cabinet ladies woidd not visit or receive Mrs. Eaton,
and
husbands
their
refused
to
interfere.
Calhoun, the Vice-President, also declined to take up Mrs. Eaton s cause. Mr. Van
Buren, a widower, showed
the
lady marked
attention.
For once defeated.
coats
he
Andrew Jackson was Creeks and Spaniards and Red in his
life,
could
Washington
conquer, but the ladies of never surrendered, and Peggy
Eaton, though her affairs became a national question, never got into Washington society. Jackson, however, did not forget who had been his friends in a little matter any more
ANDREW JACKSON
128
than
if
it
had
been the greatest
affair
of
state.
was already a question whether Calhoun or Van Buren should lead the Jackson party at the end of the one term which It
had
Jackson
declared
to
be
the
limit
of
Calhoun s stay in the White House. in the Cabinet, and General Duff friends
his
Green, of
"
The
Telegraph,"
were active in
Van
Buren, however, was con stantly growing in favor with the President. When at last Jackson discovered that Cal-
his interest.
houn, as a member of Monroe s Cabinet, had wished to censure him for his conduct in Florida,
he and the Vice-President broke
Meantime, a great public question had arisen on which the two men stood out forever.
as representatives of
the Union.
Peggy tween
The estrangement begun over
Eaton
tween a
State
the
two opposite theories of
widened
into
a
and the United
nullifier
of
the
breach
be
States, be
laws
and
the
defender of the Union.
For the pendulum had swung, and
it
no longer the Federalist merchants of
was
New
THE WHITE HOUSE
129
England, but the planters of the South, and particularly of South Carolina, who were with
discontent
the
New England had
ment.
the
of
policy
govern
turned to
manu
some of the energy she had formerly given to commerce and seafaring, and was
factures
now
in
ster,
favor
of a protective
her foremost
voted against
man
the
at
tariff
Web
tariff.
Washington, had of 1816, but had
mind and supported a higher tariff in 1824, and a still higher in 1828. The planters of the South had not found it
changed
easy
to
slave
his
develop
manufactures
They had
labor.
little
therefore, to protect against
European exported
countries.
much
of
On
their
with
their
or
nothing, the products of
the contrary, they cotton to England,
and imported from England and other coun tries
many
of
the
things
were, as system of tariff taxation, and
Accordingly, they to
the
whole
they consumed. a rule, opposed
desired free trade.
Many
of
them
also
op
posed the system of internal improvements, both on constitutional grounds and because they
felt
that the tariff
made them pay more
ANDREW JACKSON
130
than their share of the
expense of such un
dertakings. On the question of internal improvements
Jackson
soon took a stand entirely pleasing to the opponents of the system. In his first
message to Congress he declared against it, and when Congress passed a bill subscribing
money
to
the
stock
of
Lexington road, one improvements enterprise
specially it.
it
and
Maysville
the
chief
internal
undertaken, and favored by Clay,
far
so
promptly vetoed he vetoed unless
of
the
an he
Other such measures
was
that
clear
a two-
majority in each House would pass He preferred that the them over his veto. money received from the sale, of public lands
thirds
should
be distributed among the States, be
lieving
that
they,
instead
of
the
general
government, should undertake the improve
ments necessary to the development of the country.
Jackson had, indeed, great respect for the rights of the States under the Constitution,
and warned Congress not
to
go beyond the
powers which were clearly given
to the
gen-
THE WHITE HOUSE
131 |
eral government.
been
long
The State
of Georgia
because
discontent
the
had
Indians
I
1
were not removed from her borders, and the President sympathized strongly with her
As
feeling.
soon
he
as
was
elected,
the
Georgia legislature passed an act dividing up the Cherokee country into counties, and extending over them the civil laws of the
The
was plainly contrary to trea between the Indians and the Federal
State. ties
act
government, but the President refused to in terfere. On the contrary, he withdrew all
United States troops from the Indian coun try, and left the State to deal with the In dians
as
it
chose.
Later on, the Supreme
Court of the United States decided that the Georgia law was unconstitutional because it took away the treaty rights of the Cherokees.
"
cision," it."
John Marshall
said Jackson,
"now
The
favor of
President, in fact, was heartily in removing the Indians, and before
he went out of
office
had given up one in the West.
tribes
made his de let him enforce
has
the last of the Southern its
old
home
for a
new
1 I
ANDREW JACKSON
132
Jackson
collision
s
Marshall over reaching
what neglected of
quences
No
much
as
the
Justice
question
in their
course
his
statesman,
Chief
had very farwhich historians have some
this
effects,
with
no
President,
great
the conse
study of on other
Chief
questions.
had
Justice
done to
so
make
general government strong and to re strain the States. Jackson, disagreeing with some of Marshall s views, never lost an op
the
portunity to put on the bench a
man
of
his
The result was that own way of thinking. many years later, when, in a great crisis, the supporters of the national government and the leaders of States about to break away
from
the
Court
to
Union decide
looked
to
between
the
them,
Supreme the
voice
came from the august tribunal spoke words which Marshall and Story would never
that
have uttered, but which the champions the States heard with delight.
On
these important questions, then, Presi
dent Jackson
acted
like
an extreme
Jeffer-
But the South Carolin soon found that if he was ready to keep
sonian ians
of
Democrat.
THE WHITE HOUSE
133
the general government from interfering with any right that could reasonably be claimed
a State, he was equally ready to stand up for the Union when he thought a State for
was going too far. He had nothing 1828.
In his
to
do with the
tariff
of
message he suggested that some modifications of it were desirable, and first
pointed out that the public debt would soon be paid, and it would be advisable to reduce too
mild a word to
The
nians.
clamor of
gressmen
bad
the
protection as
possible,
might in the end be defeated. passed, the South Carolina legisla
hoping that it
to
of
and Con
interests,
as
it
South Caroli
outcome
altogether
make
to
the
selfish
opposed
the
suit
was
law
many
had helped
AVhen
But modification was
the duties.
certain of
it
ture vigorously protested, and began at once to debate about the best plan of resistance.
The plan to
finally preferred
declare
therefore States
to
the
null join
law
and in
unconstitutional,
void,
the
was for the State
and
call
declaration.
and
on other If
the
national government tried to enforce the law
ANDREW JACKSON
134
South
in
and
citizens,
she
Carolina, as
the
would
protect her resort withdraw
final
The plan was first placed American people in an Exposi
from the Union. before the
and
tion
"
"
Protest
by the South 1828 and the real
adopted
Carolina legislature in ; author of that famous document, though the fact was not then known, was the Vice-Presi-
The
Calhoun.
dent,
associate
of
Clay in
had made a beginning of improvements and of protection,
those acts which internal
long a statesman of the strong-government school, Calhoun had been led by the distress
and discontent the
Constitution
said
afterwards,
The
people to examine
"
again, "
and character and had now come ture
own
of his
in
order,"
to ascertain
as
fully the
he
na
our political system," to a change of views. of
nullification
doctrine
came
before
Congress in the whiter of 1829-30, and was debated in the most famous of American debates. his tariff
Clay was not there to speak for system, but a greater orator than
Clay took up the challenge. of all
In the greatest
American orations since Patrick Henry
THE WHITE HOUSE
135
spoke for liberty, Webster
and get
spoke for union Americans will never for
and words until
liberty,
his
alike destroyed.
liberty
and union are
Jackson was the
in the country to miss their force.
himself, he
yet
knew how
to give
man
last
No
orator
words the
power of a promised or a threatened deed. Not long after the debate, there was a public States -Rights men in Wash to celebrate Jefferson s birthday. ington Jackson did not attend, but he sent a toast,
dinner of the
and probably the seven words of his toast were more confounding to the nullifiers than all the stately paragraphs of Webster s ora tion. It was Our Federal Union it must The be preserved." Calhoun s toast was next to our liberties the most Union, "
:
:
"
:
and Jackson, who was just learning that he had been mistaken about Calhoun in dear,"
1818, began now to see clearly that the great South Carolinian was in sympathy with the nullifiers.
ever,
were
Many South still
hoping
Carolinians,
that
the
how
President
would not take any active measures to defeat their plan. Some of them went on hoping
ANDREW JACKSON
136
until the
Fourth of July, 1831, when there
was read, at a public dinner of Union men at Charleston, a letter from Jackson which left
no doubt of what he meant
to
do
if
they He was going to enforce the laws kept on. and preserve the Union.
Having by
this
broken utterly with
time
Calhoun, he desired to rid himself of those cabinet members who were Calhoun s friends,
and
to that
end took the bold and unexam
pled step of changing his cabinet entirely, only Barry, the postmaster-general, being
kept in the
Van Buren
office.
up
plan, gave
once appointed
his
readily into
fell
portfolio,
minister
to
and was
Great
at
Britain.
A
Edward
took his Livingston place. change in the "Kitchen Cabinet" followed. General Duff Green would not desert Cal houn, and so the organ of Francis
P.
The Telegraph
"
the
"
ceased to be
administration.
Instead,
Kentucky, who, like Amos Kendall, had been first the friend and then the enemy of Clay, was called to Wash ington,
became
and
Blair,
set
up a power
of
"
The
for
Globe,"
Jackson.
which soon
Nor were
THE WHITE HOUSE the
these
only Calhoun.
with
of
consequences
Jackson
and
137
the his
break closest
were by this time bent on making Van Buren, instead of Calhoun, President after Jackson, but were doubtful of their
friends
ability to accomplish it at the next
The
election.
was therefore persuaded to run again. The Democrats in the legisla ture of Pennsylvania, acting on a hint from Lewis, sent him an address urging him to President
stand.
If for a time he hesitated, he ceased
when
became
Clay was
apparent that going to be the candidate of the
National
Republicans.
to
hesitate
it
Clay,
yielding
to
the appeals of his party friends, reappeared in the Senate at the opening of Congress in
December, 1831, and now the duel between the two great party leaders grew fiercer than ever.
Clay returned to the
Senate to find his
policy attacked by the nullifiers, his internal improvements policy blocked by the
tariff
President
s
vetoes,
which he and
and
still
a third policy
his party firmly supported vig
orously attacked
by the
terrible
man
in the
ANDREW JACKSON
138
White House.
The National Bank was
in
Its charter expired in 1836, and danger. the President in both his annual messages
had gravely questioned the wisdom
He
ing another. ality of
he
setting
questioned
Bank
as
it
of grant
questioned the constitution up such an institution, and
the
and safety of the December 12, 1831, the
value
existed.
National
Republicans, assembled in their first national convention at Baltimore, nomi nated Clay for President, and called 011 the
people to defeat Andrew Jackson in order to save the Bank. Jackson dauntlessly ac
cepted the issue and gave the country to understand that either he or the Bank must
go to the wall.
and
the
among
For the time, even Calhoun
nullifiers
the
first
place his enemies to Clay, Biddle, and the
yielded
Bank. Biddle was president of the Bank, a hand some, accomplished man, a graceful writer,
and a cier.
clever,
though not always a safe finan
brought him into Isaac Hill and Levi Woodbury,
His ready pen
disfavor.
the Democratic
first
Senators from
New Hamp-
THE WHITE HOUSE
139
made complaints of Jeremiah Mason, an old Federalist, who was president of the Their charges Branch Bank at Portsmouth. sliire,
were various, but they and others gave Jack son the idea that
the
Branch Bank
in
New
Hampshire had used its power to oppose his Biddle friends and to help the Adams men. He did so, and was called on to investigate. defended Mason against
the charges.
all
A
long correspondence ensued, and Biddle went
from Philadelphia, where the head Bank was, His letters and made a visit to Portsmouth. to the Secretary of the Treasury were cour teous, well written, but also defiant.
the
Jackson men, he
said,
who were
It
was
trying
draw the Bank into politics, and the Bank had constantly refused to go into politics in to
any way. indeed, lasted
He made
but the the
out
a very good case
the
correspondence grew Jackson s convic
longer
stronger tion that the Bank was in politics, that fighting him, that it was corrupt, that
it it
was
was
dangerous to the liberties of the plain people who had sent him to the White House.
Congress took up the matter, and committees
ANDREW JACKSON
140
Houses reported in favor of the Bank. The Supreme Court had already decided that of both
the act establishing
it
was
constitutional.
Clay boldly determined to force the fight ing both on the tariff and on the Bank.
The great measures of the Congress of 1831-2 were a new tariff law and a new Bank charter. The public debt was now extinguished, and it was clearly ad visable to reduce the revenue ; but Clay and
nearly
made
his followers tirely
on
articles
the reductions almost en
not
produced in America,
and
so, in
new
tariff as protective as the old.
defiance of the nullifiers,
made
the
Jackson
had gradually given up most of his protec tion ideas, and so the tariff did not please him.
Clay,
"American
in
fact,
system,"
declared as
he
that
called
for it,
his "he
would defy the South, the President, and the Devil." Jackson was further defied by the Senate when nation of Britain.
whole
it
refused to confirm the nomi
Van Buren The
session.
the President
;
to be minister to
struggle
Benton
Great
through the defended sturdily
raged
Clay, Webster, and Calhoun
THE WHITE HOUSE
141
or another, against him. It was a great session for the orators, and so,
were
all,
in one
way
far as Congress was concerned Clay
had
his
But Lewis and Kendall were not idle they were working not on Congress but on In May, the Democrats nomi the people. nated Jackson for President and Van Bureii way.
;
for Vice-President.
ished
its
In July, Congress
work with the Bank
charter,
fin
and
Jackson promptly answered with a veto, and so the two parties went to the country. Jackson went into the campaign with an advantage drawn from his successful conduct His adminis of two foreign negotiations.
had secured from England an agree ment by which the trade with the West Indies, closed to Americans ever since the Revolution, was opened again, and from
tration
France a spoliations
pay large claims for American commerce which
promise
on
to
He had been presented many times before. was also undoubtedly supported by the great majority of the people in the stand he took nullifiers. What the people against the would decide about the tariff was doubtful ;
ANDREW JACKSON
142
but as between a system, even though it were called the American system, and an old hero,
Democrats were not afraid of the peo The great fight was over the ple s choice. Bank, and on that question Jackson was sup the
poor, who thought of the Bank merely as a rich men s institution, by the fears of the ignorant, who
ported
by the prejudices
believed the
monstrous
Bank
to
be
of
the
a mysterious
and
and by the instinct of lib many others, who, though they did affair,
erty in not believe the
against Biddle, did danger in so powerful a
charges
feel that
there was
financial
agency so closely
connected
with
the government. Moreover, the opposition was divided.
A
party bitterly opposed to Free Masonry had sprung into existence, and Jackson was a
But the
Mason.
supporting date.
Anti-Masons, instead of nominated a third candi
Clay, South Carolina threw her votes
on a fourth. Jackson got 219 Clay, 11 date,
and
electoral votes to
away
49
for
Floyd, the nullification candi seven for Wirt, the Anti-Mason
for
THE WHITE HOUSE
143
His popular vote was more than twice Clay s, and he actually carried the New England States of Maine and New Hamp
candidate.
shire.
cised
tered
his
during
If,
first
term,
he
exer
he en great office like a general, upon the second with even a firmer
his
belief
that
have
he ought to
his
way
in all
The people had given an answer to Clay and Biddle and Calhoun and Marshall
things.
;
to the corrupters of the
enemies of the of
the
law
He
Eaton.
President;
and
the
s
to
the
nullifiers
of
slanderers
understood
victory as the people all
government and the
Peggy
his
overwhelming warrant to go on with
he had begun.
But
neither
the
nullifiers
nor
the
Bank
In November, 1832, were willing to give up. a South Carolina convention passed an ordi nance, to
go into
effect
February 1, 1833, nullifying the tariff law, and took measures Jackson action to defend its by force. promptly sent Winfield Scott to South Caro lina to
make ready
for
employed a
fighting,
confidential agent to organize the in the State,
Union men
and called on Edward Living-
ANDREW JACKSON
144
him with an address to his mis The pen of Livingston guided countrymen. and the spirit of Jackson, working together, made the Nullification Proclamation a great ston to help
state
paper. to the second
was a high-minded appeal thought and the better nature It
of the Carolinians
;
an able statement of the
national character of the government ; a firm defiance to all enemies of the Union. It
was the most popular act of the administra tion, and brought to its support men who had never supported it before. Benton and Webster joined hands even Clay, who, like ;
Jackson, heart,
his
supported
alone of
out
loved
all his
against
country with
the
President.
his
whole
Calhoun,
famous contemporaries, stood
him.
He
left
the
Vice-Presi
came down upon the floor as a Senator, and defended nullification against all the famous orators who crowded to assail dent
s
seat,
it.
The President called on Congress to pro vide the means to enforce the law, and a socalled force bill was introduced. The Caro linians
were
defiant,
and the country seemed
THE WHITE HOUSE
145
on the verge of civil war but Clay, by the second of his famous compromises, avoided ;
the
struggle.
A
new
tariff
law,
providing
for a gradual reduction of duties, was passed The Carolinians along with the force bill.
chose the olive branch instead of the
The
nullifiers
first
postponed and then re
pealed their ordinance. Jackson was a national
made a
hero
as
he
had
In the summer of 1833,
never been before. he
sword.
journey to the
Northeast,
and
New England
made him welcome. made him a Doctor of
even
Harvard College As he rode through the streets of Laws. Boston, a merchant of Federalist traditions, who had closed his windows to show his prin Jackson s bear ciples, peeped through, and ing so touched him that he sent a child to
wave
gentleman a handkerchief. of the Waxhaws was at the summit the
Andy of
his
rival
old
career.
him
No
American could no other American
other
in popularity
;
had ever had such power over men since Washington frowned per that he might be a king.
his country
at the whis
U
ANDREW JACKSON
146
But the great man was only a man, after all. He was in wretched health throughout his first term,
and
at
times
did not seem
it
that he could possibly live through it. His old wounds troubled him, and one day he laid bare his shoulder, gripped his cane with
and a surgeon cut out the ball from Jesse Benton s pistol. He was too ill his free hand,
to
finish
New England
his
tour,
and
has
tened back to Washington.
But
his
opponents
rejoice in his
had
little
reason
to
The summer was not he had made up his mind to do illness.
spent before the most daring act of his public life. He had vetoed the Bank s new charter, but the
Bank
itself
funds were
The
was not destroyed. still
in its keeping
;
its
public
power in
the business world was as great as ever. He believed, moreover, that Biddle was using money freely to fight him, and would sooner or later get what he wanted from Congress. He prepared, therefore, to crush the Bank by
withdrawing the deposits of
and giving them banks
throughout
into
the
public money the keeping of other country.
Blair,
in
THE WHITE HOUSE "
The
147
work to convince the the Bank was not sound, and
Globe,"
set
to
people that that the public funds were unsafe.
was sent about the country
to
Kendall
examine other
Congress voted against removing the deposits, but the old charter authorized banks.
the Secretary of the Treasury to do it, and the Secretary of the Treasury was now Wil liam Duane, of Philadelphia, a son of Jack
There had early friend. changes in the cabinet after son
s
been the
some second
inauguration, Livingston had been appointed minister to France, the Secretary of the
Treasury transferred
to
the
State
Depart
ment, and Duane called to the Treasury. But Duane would not fall in with the President
s
plan. were in
He
did not
believe
the
danger, and refused to Jackson argued, sign an order for removal. then grew angry, and finally dismissed him. deposits
Duane defended
his course ably.
Lewis
also
Benton favored it, advised against removal. but in this he was almost alone among the Jackson, however, was leading public men. started, and he could not be stopped. Roger
ANDREW JACKSON
148
B.
of
Taney,
was
Maryland, the Attorney-Gen
made Secretary
the Treasury, and on September 26, 1833, three days after Duane s dismissal, the order was signed and eral,
of
a series of changes began that did not end until the whole financial system of the coun
was changed.
try
When
considered,
legislature
ever
in
tion
was
lower
In
there.
were
still
against
men
brilliant
the
be,
the
a new genera
of
House,
and Adams
Senate, the
President.
The
also
three
great
now
and were
supreme,
the
to
proved
probably the ablest assembled in America.
everything
There were
it
met,
Congress
united
debates
were
A
long and furious.
panic throughout the country added to the excitement. Clay led
the attack, Calhoun and it
;
Benton
bore
the
House, the Jackson
Webster supported
brunt
of
it.
In the
men had
a majority ; in the The Senate Senate, the opposition. refused to confirm the nomination of Taney to
be
that
Secretary of the Treasury, and voted the President had taken upon himself
powers not given by the Constitution.
The
THE WHITE HOUSE
149
President sent in a fiery remonstrance, and Benton the Senate voted not to receive it. at once
moved
that the resolution of censure
be expunged from the record, and declared he would keep that motion before the Senate until the people,
by choosing a Jackson ma
jority of Senators, should force
The
it
through.
nothing done for the Bank, and nothing ever was done for it.
When
session closed with
its
charter expired in 1836,
got an
it
other from Pennsylvania, and kept going for some years. But Jackson had given it a
deathblow. cial
It
into
fell
finan
dangerous
practices, failed, started
again, failed a
second time, staggered to its feet once more, and then went down in utter ruin and dis grace. Its
ruin
was
not
disturbance
great
The country had
to
accomplished financial
been
lation
conditions.
prosperous
Money had been
time.
without
a
Specu
plentiful.
had been the order
of
long
the day.
The
pet banks," chosen to be the depositories of the government money, were badly managed. "
The
surplus, distributed
among
the
States,
ANDREW JACKSON
150
the
strengthened
Paper money was too
tion.
wild
to
impulse
specula
plentiful.
A
dangerous financial condition prevailed, into whose causes and consequences we cannot
That and many other aspects
here inquire.
of Jackson s administration can
be
satisfac
only at considerable length. himself attributed all the trouble
torily treated
Jackson
and
Biddle
to
was trying
The
he
declared,
ruin the country for revenge.
to
He
life.
took
no
measures
of
a
na
to restore health to business until near
ture
the
Biddle,
President even suspected Clay of set on an insane person who attempted
ting his
Clay;
end
usual
on
of
his
his
own
term.
acting as he issued
Then,
responsibility,
a circular commonly called the
"
Specie Cir
cular,"
requiring payments for public lands,
which
had
formerly
made
bank That was like
been
in
paper, to be made in coin. the thunderclap which precedes the storm but the storm broke on his successor, not :
on him.
For a time bequeath
to
it
seemed as
his
if
successor
he might also a foreign war.
THE WHITE HOUSE had
France
pay the claims, but the French Chambers agreed
to
151
spoliation failed
to
Louis Philippe, the
appropriate the money.
Livingston, the Ameri can Minister, that a stronger tone from the king,
to
suggested
United States
might Jackson was
action.
stir
Chambers
the
the
last
man
in
to
the
world
to
hurt a cause by taking too mild a
tone.
In
his
message of
he took a tone
so
strong
1834 that
French Chambers too angry
to Congress, it
made
to pay.
the
There
The House, suggested reprisals. led by Adams, who never fell behind Jack son on a question of foreign relations, sus upon, he
tained action.
The Senate took no The French Chambers finally passed
the President.
an appropriation, but with a proviso that no money should be paid until satisfactory ex planations
of the
President
s
message were
Jackson had no notion of apolo gizing, and feeling was rising in both coun tries. Diplomatic relations were broken off, received.
and war was apparently very close, when, in the winter of 1835-6, England offered to An expression in Jackson s mesmediate.
ANDREW JACKSON
152
1835, not meant as an apology, was somehow construed as such by the French sage of
and France agreed The final settlement came
ministry,
of
Jackson
tial
s
election
that
administration. of
Van Buren
1836 had
to pay. at the very
end
The presiden
fulfilled
his
should be his successor.
wish
In
January, 1837, the resolution of censure was solemnly expunged from the records of
the
That body being now controlled by his friends, and his enemy, John Marshall, being dead, he named Taney Chief Jus Senate.
tice,
and the nomination was confirmed.
He
issued a farewell address to the people, after the manner of Washington, and stood, a white-haired, impressive figure, to watch the inauguration- of Van Buren; then he jour
neyed home to The Hermitage to receive his last glorious welcome from his neighbors.
was the most triumphant home-coming of them all. He had beaten all his enemies. It
Clay, wearied out with politics, was again in retirement ; Adams, whom he found a Presi dent, tives
was leading a minority of representa in a new sectional struggle, the fight
THE WHITE HOUSE against
slavery
one
but
Calhoun,
;
from
step
whom
153
he
found
presidency, was a figure, the Ishmael of
the
gloomy and tragical American politics. As for his friends, he left them in power everywhere, in con
on the bench, in the White House. friends and enemies he had been like
gress,
To
fate.
There was
and
a calm
bors,
and
associates,
political
mous
him a peaceful happy deathbed.
left for
The
foreigners, visited
see the
old
old age,
Neigh fa
comrades,
Hermitage
to
man who had
played so great a part Like Jefferson at Monticello, he
in history.
guided with
The
counsel
his
party he over slavery
the
had
was struggle now begun, and soon the annexation of Texas took the first place among public questions. led.
The
old
long
man had encouraged Houston
to
go
Texas, and had done all he could, and more than any other President would have to
dared,
to
forward
pendence.
Now
come
the
into
annexation.
the
that
Union,
movement
for
inde
Texas was he
ready to heartily favored
In 1844, Clay and Polk were
ANDREW JACKSON
154
candidates for the presidency, and Jackson s influence, still a power, was freely exerted for
Polk and annexation.
now an to
lift
hand
old
man
also,
It
was as
if
Clay,
were once more about
the cup to his lips, and the relentless of Andrew Jackson dashed it to the
ground.
Yet Andrew Jackson declared before he died
that
he forgave
all
his
enemies.
He
had promised his wife, whose picture he wore in a great locket next his heart, whose Bible he read every day at the White House, that when he should be free of politics he would join himself to the church if, he said, ;
he made a profession while he was still be fore the people, his enemies would accuse
him
of hypocrisy.
He
kept his word.
Trem
bling and weeping, he stood before the altar in the tiny church he had built for her and the vows of a Christian.
took
It
had been
hard for him to say that he forgave his ene mies hardest of all, to say that he forgave those who had attacked him while he was ;
But after serving his country in the field. a long pause he told the minister he thought he could forgive even them.
THE WHITE HOUSE June
1845, in his seventy-ninth year, His last words to those about him
8,
he died.
bade them meet him
What the
155
is
the rightful
horseman
fiery
in heaven.
in
place in history of front of the White
House ? The reader must answer for himself when he has studied for himself all the great Such a study questions Jackson dealt with. will surely show that he made many mis
much
takes,
did
many
causes
other
side,
many
without
was
It will
cruel.
injustice
subjects,
to
men, espoused
waiting
often
bitter,
to
hear
violent,
the
even
show how ignorant he was on how prejudiced on others. It
show him in contact with men who sur passed him in wisdom, in knowledge, in fair ness of mind. It will deny him a place will
among see
those
both
calm,
sides
just great
and yet
strive
men who can ardently
for
the right side. But the longest inquiry will not discover another American of his times who had in
such ample measure the gifts of courage and will. Many had fewer faults, many superior
ANDREW JACKSON
156
talents,
but none so great a
man who had
the
his
He was
spirit.
He
way.
was
the
American whose simple virtues his country men most clearly understood, whose tres and until passes they most readily forgave ;
Americans like
altogether changed, many, Twenties and Democrats of the
the
will
Thirties,
for the
by
are
poor
still
boy who fought
step, to the
dier
for
"vote
highest
who always went
station
-
Jackson,"
his ;
way, step
for the sol
meet the
to
enemy
gate; for the President who never shirked a responsibility for the man who at
the
;
would not think
evil
a
of
woman
or speak
Education, and training would have saved him many
harshly to a child. in
statecraft,
errors
;
culture
fierceness
of
uncultivated,
his
might
have
nature.
imperfect
as
softened
But
the
untrained,
he was, not one
contemporaries had so good right to stand for American character.
of
his great
a
The End.
World Public Library Association